introduction and biliteracy for Deaf children...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 16, 2003

Dear SW List and Susanne -
Thank you for your excellent posting, Susanne, which I find very 
interesting...Having been emersed in the world of programming symbols 
lately, I am delighted to leap away from computers and into the 
classroom with the Deaf children, whom I feel, can truly benefit from 
our work...

I believe that it is not only possible for signing-deaf children to 
become fluent readers of "Sign Language Literature" (literature written 
in SignWriting) but that it already has happened. There are Deaf 
children in Nicaragua and other countries, who are expressing 
themselves at least, in SignWriting, and who do sit down and read a 
book in SignWriting as hearing children do in a spoken language...But 
how do we prove true biliteracy? Dr. Cecilia Flood's dissertation 
established that Deaf children's self-esteem flourishes, when they are 
given a way to read and write their signed language...and that is 
important. But it is not a linguistic study, nor is it a statistical 
study...so have you considered either of those? And if so, I bet Stefan 
has a whole bunch of written literature in German Sign Language which 
you could use with your young students!

Val ;-)

-----------------------------------

First,

Susanne Mirring in Germany wrote:
> 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  ˛˚ ontrastive m  language learning 
> possible and
> could also support the target of teaching cultural aspects of the Deaf
> community  o  why reading  ˛∆ 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
>