James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/15/91)
Index Number: 14883
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
Questions:
1. In your research, did you test whether or not those stuuuudents
could understand ASL if it were signed to them?
No, I didn't test that. That would be another study. If I were
to guess what would happen, I would guess that there would be some
misunderstandings because the rules of ASL and ther rules of the
childrens' sign systems were different. Though many of the signs are
the same, the grammatical rules differ and would therefore lead to
misunderstandings.
2. How can classroom teachers use a bilingual approach to teaching
deaf children?
Bilingual education has a variety of models. The model most
commonly used in the United States in bilingual education classrooms
is the transitional model. In this model the first language is used
as the language of instruction until the stud ents are as competent
in their second language, English, as their first language. This
usually takes about 5 years. At that point, English becomes the
language of instruction and the first language is no longer used in
the classroom. I do not feel that this would be an appropriate model
for us to use with deaf children. How can English be used as the
language of instruction after the transition period is over? Spoken
English does not provide adequate access because of the childrens'
hearing losses and the difficulty of lipreading. MCE is not
learnable and is difficult to process. Written English is too
laborious and slow. There is no effective way to transition to
English. ASL has to be used as the language of instruction thoughout
a child's education program. English can be developed as a language
for reading and writing but not for regular classroom dialog.
In another model, the maintenance model, one language is spoken
all morning and the other language is spoken all afternoon. This
model is commonly used in other foreign countries. However, I don't
believe this model is appropriate for deaf edu cation either for the
same reasons the transitional model would not work. How would
English be used as the language of instruction for half a day?
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