SignWriting and L2 literacy

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
December 15, 2003

Dear SW List, and Tamar:
Thank you for this message, Tamar, and welcome to the SignWriting 
List!...

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Tamar Bernfeld wrote:
Over the last two months, I have been considering how SignWriting might 
facilitate L2 literacy acquisition for deaf learners whose L1 is a 
signed language.  During this time, I have been learning to read 
SignWriting and have found that I am able to read any ASL sign I know 
if written in SignWriting.  In other words, the system is quite 
transparent...once a reader knows the meaning of the symbols, there 
appears to be a one to one sign/symbol mapping....
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Val continues...
This is good news! I believe you are using our American Sign Language 
Dictionary notebook, Tamar? Did you know that there is software, for 
your students....SignBank is a dictionary on the computer, and 
SignWriter will give your students a way to type signs and words...And 
yes...the teachers in the Albuquerque School System, who use 
SignWriting with their young Deaf students, find that the students end 
up teaching the teachers how to read SignWriting...so there is no 
question that SignWriting works for someone who knows how to sign 
already...

Recently a Deaf teacher of Deaf students wrote to me to tell me that 
her students insisted that they use SignWriting, and this teacher was 
turned into a true-believer, when she found she could read the Pledge 
of Allegiance...you can download it on this web page:

Pledge of Allegiance in ASL
http://www.SignWriting.org/library/pdf/pdf012.html

I would suggest that you contact Dr. Cecilia Flood, in Albuquerque New 
Mexico, who has just received her doctorate, studying SignWriting and 
Deaf children...

Dr. Cecilia Flood
flood_c at aps.edu
cecmf at earthlink.net

You can purchase a copy of Cecilia's dissertation, by contacting:

Dissertation Publishing Customer Service
ProQuest Information and Learning
1-800-521-0600 ext. 7044
refer to publication #3080448
sandy.wier at il.proquest.com

More soon -

Val ;-)