Wirelessly posted
I think it's a mixed bag there Reba to be honest.
I'll give my perspective as an interpreter. Obviously, the best perspectives are from the deaf community but since you mentioned there is an interpreter involved, I'll address that.
A professional, ITP-graduate interpreter knows that using song interpretation for novice hearing signers is not a preferred way to teach ASL. In my ITP, I don't recall doing any song assignments. We learned about the appropriate ways to approach song interpretation but we didn't make song presentations to each other. We were taught that interpreting songs is appropriate if vocalized songs are part of the event that deaf people are attending, of course.
At an interpreter workshop that I attended that was completely about interpreting songs, one point right at the beginning was emphasized. There are two categories of signing songs, and they should be kept separate. One is a hearing person
interpreting the song for a deaf audience so they can be included in the event. The second is
performance signing, usually done by a deaf signer giving a creative rendition of a song. The audience can be hearing and deaf. (There is no legitimate third category of hearing signers performing for hearing-only non-signing audiences.)
I've attended (and graduated) from my ITP, attended numerous interpreter workshops, and attended other ASL classes as an observer, and I've never seen an emphasis on teaching ASL via using songs. Nope. We were taught that you need to have a really firm grip on the language before you attempt interpreting songs.
The fact that the people you mention are using English-heavy PSE for their songs tells me that they don't even have a grasp on the concept of song signing.
Please tell me that they don't fingerspell anything during the songs. :Ohno: