James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/15/91)
Index Number: 14874
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
At the University of Arizona where I work, approximately 500
students a semester pass through my program to learn ASL as a second
language. Ten years ago no classes were offered. Now universities
across the country have adopted the study of ASL as equivalent to
the study of a foreign language in fulfilling the requirements of
foreign language study for graduation. Times have really changed!
Interestingly enough the number of hearing students taking ASL
classes across the country has
continued to increase and increase to the point that the number of
hearing students studying ASL now outnumbers the number of deaf
people who use ASL! Now ASDB, like many other schools throughout
the country, is discussing the use of ASL in its pr ogram.
Now let's focus on MCE (Manually Coded English). Has MCE
accomplished what it set out to do? That is the question I wanted to
answer when I began my research 5 years ago. There were many
questions about MCE that I wanted to find the answer s for when I
began my research. I will share what I found with you and you can
decide how this information relates to ASDB and what ASDB wants to do
in the future.
There are four different versions of MCE: SEE 1, SEE 2, LOVE
and Signed English. SEE 2 is the most commonly used version
particularly in mainstream programs. Residential schools typically
use a version similar to Signed English.
My research focused on SEE 2. SEE 2 was developed as a way
of representing English in a visual/gestural mode to facilitate the
development of English skills in deaf children since the oral method
was not producing the results that educators had wanted. It was
thought that if English were encoded in a visual/gestural mode, a
deaf child would be able to develop English as a first language.
Just as a hearing child develops English as a first language through
audition and a deaf child of deaf parents learns ASL as a first
language visually, MCE would provide an opportunity to learn English
as a first language by presenting it in a visual/gestural mode. This
idea was a very exciting one and as a result, the use of SEE 2 spread
throug hout the country after 1970. Since then the field of deaf
education has essentially been involved in a twenty year experiment.
Can MCE help deaf children acquire English?
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