introduction

[Stephanie Berk]

Hello Everybody,

        A while back, I wrote to the list about a proposal I was
submitting to research children's learning to read and write using
SignWriting, and another sign writing system versus language
proficiency. Part of the objective was also to see about the
transferability of being able to learn to read and write the surrounding
spoken language too.
    Susanne, were you on the list at that time, or should I send you a
copy of that email?

    For everyone else, unfortunately I don't yet know if that project
was funded.  I find out on October 31st- very soon. I also still need to
get in touch with Dr. Flood!  I will keep you all updated.

Yours,
Stephanie Berk


Susanne Mirring wrote:

>Hello everybody,
>
>I am on the list for a few weeks now and would like to introduce myself.
>My name is Susanne and I come from Germany. I  Ø    a student of the university of
>Cologne and will become a teacher for deaf and hard of hearing children. For my
>examination I am writing a paper about bilingual education of deaf children. I
>suppose some list members are working on a similar topic so it could be
>interesting to share some thoughts
>
>ÿÿ n Germany there are different bilingual programs that use German Sign Language
>and spoken language  o  one of the most famous concepts is the one in Hamburg
>(developed by Prillwitz and others). Sign Language is seen as the   À   atural m
>language of deaf children and so it is used at school for giving information,
>instructions, explanations and so on. The target is to give everything to the
>children that is important for their development  o  not only in language but
>also in cognitive and emotional cases. German spoken language is taught as a
>second language to make sure the deaf pupils can cope with the hearing world.
>The way how the children are learning spoken language is mostly through
>writing.
>Now I looked at some bilingual programs for hearing children and found out that
>they are comparable to the situation of deaf children  o  according to immigrants
>and other minority groups. They also want to support the development in their
>first language because it has good influences on second language learning
>(shown by the works of Cummins and others). But they also emphasize literal
>skills in the first language  o  they want to reach bilingualism AND biliteracy.
>The question I asked is: Can a bilingual program for deaf children reach the
>same? Can children develop literacy in sign language? And why do the Hamburg
>program only teach written spoken language  o  as research shows WRITING the
>first language is very important, too. I think the reason is that they have not
>found an acceptable notation system for signs yet. As you know nearly all sign
>notation systems are mainly for research use (e.g. HamNoSys) and not very
>practical for school.
>I want to find out if SignWriting could be a solution for this problem and if
>it could be included in the bilingual program for deaf children. A writing
>system like SignWriting would make   ,¹  ontrastive m  language learning possible and
>could also support the target of teaching cultural aspects of the Deaf
>community  o  why reading   ,v  eaf stories m  in written spoken language when you can
>read it in written sign language?
>
>I hope that I managed to explain everything comprehensible  (I am sorry for my
>bad English!) - if you are interested you can ask everything that I didn  ={   make
>clear enough.
>At the moment I am still collecting information and thoughts, so I would love
>to hear what you are thinking about it. Of course I am also interested in
>similar works, your experiences and criticism
>
>ÿÿ est wishes,
>Susanne
>