Deaf education and SL literacy

[Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen]

Hello,

Some of you may remember I wrote a couple of lines about myself on the list 
a long time ago, but after that I have remained silent, even though Valerie 
encouraged me at the time to tell something more about my work to the list 
members. Susanna's introductory posting from Cologne, Germany, querying the 
lack of written sign language in bilingual deaf education programmes, 
reminded me of this and I thought I might share with you a few reflections.

I am a hearing linguist working as a professor at the University of Oslo, 
Norway, with research interests including, among other things, sign 
language, Deaf bilingualism, deaf education, and deafblind education. I 
have long been wondering why Deaf communities do not seem to collectively 
embrace the idea of using their minority language as a written language. To 
an outsider, it would seem so convenient for Deaf people to be able to 
write in one's own language, and the existence and use of a writing system 
(e.g., SignWriting) would be of high value in the political struggle for 
linguistic rights. Probably, there are several sensible explanations to 
this seeming lack of enthusiasm. One sensible reason, I suspect, is that 
the various systems for writing in a signed language have not to any large 
extent been used in the literacy programmes for signing, deaf children. 
Learning to read and write is not just a simple matter, and putting to use 
a written version of a sign language involves a different process than 
"just" transcribing what would be signed in a face-to-face situation. I 
think, therefore, that a writing system needs to be a natural part of an 
educational programme if it is to have any success in everyday 
communication. Very interestingly, we can now see some pilot classes in 
several countries in which this is being done with SignWriting, and Dr 
Cecilia Flood's dissertation from the University of New Mexico, 2002, 
evidently documents such an experience in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA). 
(Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of her dissertation.)

Be aware, though, that a system such as SignWriting may also be used in a 
non-bilingual educational setting in which spoken language is supported by 
manual signs. SignWriting may be used to write down those supporting signs 
(and to write down the lip-movement of the spoken language, too, for that 
matter, as has been explained to the list earlier; cf. Stefan Wöhrmann's 
Mundbildschrift). It should be pointed out, therefore, that the use of 
SignWriting in a classroom is no "proof" that that classroom is genuinely 
bilingual, or conversely, that a monolingual classroom may well make use of 
SignWriting. I am in no position to judge which ones of the programmes in 
which SignWriting is used, are really bilingual in the sense that a 
speech-based language and a signed language are used, and which ones are 
monolingual in the sense that only a speech-based language is used, and 
that this language is spoken with sign support.

6-year-old deaf children in Norway learn both Norwegian Sign Language and 
Norwegian at school. But they do not learn to read or write through the 
medium of SignWriting or any other system for writing Norwegian Sign 
Language, and so I cannot tell from my own research in Norway what 
difference it would make if they did. As you said, though, Susanna, the 
evidence from bilingual education for hearing children makes us expect it 
might make a difference.

With kind regards,
Arnfinn M. Vonen.