use of sign language in Jordan

Thu Sep 27 21:26:31 UTC 2007

Hoi,
When people cannot read and write they are called illiterate. The Dutch word
is "analfabeet", the German "Analphabet". This year I was in Taipei and I
perceived what it is to be illiterate because I was functionally illiterate,
I might as well have been deaf and dumb because hearing Mandarin did not
help me at all. To me it was a powerful experience.

In this thread of the last two days, we seem to agree that it is best to
learn to read and write the mother tongue first. For someone who is a native
signer this is only possible when it is accepted that you can write a sign
language. SignWriting is becoming a well established script; it allows you
to write all sign language. ELiS is as we learned a new attempt to write a
sign language.

When people write, the way they express themselves depends on how clever
they are with words and the concepts that they know. Never mind the level of
sophistication, when someone can read or write he is considered literate.
Now as the issue of this list is very much the signed languages, would you
consider someone who is able to read and write a sign language literate ?

When you do not consider someone who can read and write their sign language
literate, would that be because you consider written sign language not
expressive enough or because of sign language not being expressive enough ?
Please remember that any written language does not express what can be
expressed vocally.

Another question. SignWriting is a script in the same way that the Arab,
Latin or Cyrillic script are as all four use a subset for the languages that
uses them and as all four have the individual characters in a fixed order.
"Alphabet" is the word that expresses this. But I find a reluctance to use
this word for this meaning. Is there an alternative ?

When people learn to read and write, they learn a skill that is essential to
the functioning of our society. The study that is at the root of this thread
indicates that it is beneficial for kids that do sign to first learn to read
and write their own language before they learn another written language.
Surely you agree that being able to read / write is a language skill. Having
mastered this skill a person is provided with a tool that helps acquire a
lot of additional vocabulary. For someone who is deaf, being able to read /
write the dominant language is an essential skill because many if not most
people they encounter are deaf and dumb when it comes to sign languages. The
best representation of a spoken language has not been available to someone
who is deaf and consequently for a deaf person it is a completely new
unrelated language. All this indicates to me that studies about language
acquisition for hearing people do not necessarily apply to deaf people.

Thanks,
     Gerard

On 9/27/07, Sonja Erlenkamp <sonja.erlenkamp at hist.no> wrote:
>
> @ what is literacy?
> Not an easy question to answer. There are different parameters usually
> connotated with written versus spoken language (amongst many others did
> Wallace Chafe work on these issues in the 70/80ies).
> These parameters are for example formalness, preparedness and completness
> of utterances. Nevertheless is there no clear cut distinction between the
> registers of written- spoken/signed utterances.
> You can have very formal speeches in a specific - almost writtenlike -
> style and you can have very unformal e-mails and internet chats (for
> example). Terms like "language of distance/closeness" (well, this is
> actually my ad hoc translation of the German terms for this, probably not
> the correct english ones, sorry for that) have been used more recently by
> scientists to mark this difference.
> Register-differences like the above mentioned can also be find in
> languages with pure oral traditions. To learn all these registers usually
> happens through the process of learning how to write, nevertheless can you
> learn them in others ways too.
> That leaves me with the question what the actual contribution of the "act
> of writing" gives to the improvement of the brain's activity to use
> language. Is there any research done on this? Without any doubt is the
> ability of writing beneficial, but I doubt that the brain becomes much
> better in language skills as such.
>
> All the best
>
> Sonja Erlenkamp
>
> ________________________________
>
> Fra: slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu på vegne av Steve Slevinski
> Sendt: to 27.09.2007 19:04
> Til: A list for linguists interested in signed languages
> Emne: Re: [SLLING-L] use of sign language in Jordan
>
>
>
>
>
> Barbara O'Dea wrote:
> > And how about the English-speaking person with severe dyslexia who
> > cannot read or write English but creates a poem or a novel for someone
> > else to read and write? hmmmmm, is that person "literate"???
>
> That person is illiterate.  You are talking about oral tradition.
> Illiterate is not a judgment, it is a state of being.  There are many
> programs for adults who admit they are illiterate.  When an adult is
> illiterate and wants to change he learns to read.  He does not try and
> change the real meaning of literacy.
>
> I will not change my definitions because of pity for another person.
> Dyslexia is emotional but off topic. Besides, Deaf are not disabled.
> Their brains work fine.  Their brain's language center is wired to the
> eye.  Deaf can and should be held to the same language and literacy
> standards as hearing.
>
> ASL Literacy in college is a joke.  It's not about literacy, it's about
> knowledge, history, manual tradition, and presentation.
>
> Sign language is important because it is language!  Literacy is
> important because is improves the brains ability to use language.  Just
> because you change the definition of literacy doesn't mean you'll get
> the benefits of literacy.
>
> You can not make literacy with a video camera.  That's a performance.
> Writing is more than pressing a button on a video camera.  It is near
> impossible to edit a video to replace a single sign.  Wikipedia has
> mostly rejected the idea of a video encyclopedia for ASL for this reason.
>
> Regards,
> -Steve
>
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