James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (03/15/91)
Index Number: 13984
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
Ralph, you make an interesting statement that English acquisition skills
are based on education and not language. You might be a great psychologist
but I am not sure about your knowledge inthe field of education. With
out language education won't and can't happen. As a matter of fact,
language's primary purpose of existence is to educate. Knowledge is
passed on from generation to generation via language. Remove language
and just how much education do you achieve? My statements are baed
on far more than emotion, theyare based on common sense and research.
i may not so hot shotty about quoting research sources, but I know
my field well enough. Not so much that I would claim I can't learn
somethin new because I along with anyone can always learn seeing as
how none of us know everything.
English skills based on education more than language? Very funny. English
is a language itself. Now the deaf child as you said many are not exposed
to ASL competent personnel. That does not mean that ASL is not the
way to go to get the child to have a mastered first language. It means
that educational system is denying that child the opportunity to develop
a mastered first language on which to build that second language we
call English. If programs demanded and trained personnel to be skilled
ASL users and had a cirriculum designed to facilitate formally using
ASL to give that child a background of linguistic experiences on which
to relate, assimilate and generally internalize linguistic knowledge,
then that child would be served properly. I am sorry Ralph, I think
you have been dredged up to send the message you did to place my credibility
in question because your statement doesn't reflect what one in your
field should be readily knowledgeable of on this topic. The statement
I am targetting is astonishing in its claim and contradicts too many
experts in the field of not only deaf education but education in general.
I plan to share it with university professors here after I strip all
indicators of its author just to see what they have to say about it,
though I already knwo what that will be.
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