Deaf education and SL literacy

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 16, 2003

Dear Arnfinn -
Thank you for this thoughtful message, which I read closely...I 
understand that it will take generations before we really know if 
biliteracy is possible, for Deaf children using SignWriting, but I 
believe we are on our way...traveling down that road....in this 
generation....

And I know, Arnfinn, that every country must find their own way, and 
that Norway has many "schools of thought", just as the US does. There 
are Americans who have never heard of SignWriting, even though the 
Albuquerque SignWriting Literacy project has existed since 1999. And 
there are other Americans who are against it, without even looking at 
it. And then there are Deaf kids who love it sooo much, that they kiss 
their books when SignWriting is brought out in the classroom...Cecilia 
told me a story about a Deaf student, who would kiss her SignWriting 
books, she loved it sooo much!

And I know that there are people in Norway, who may not realize how 
much work Ingvild Roald and others have devoted to SignWriting in the 
past in your country...I suspect that it will take time, but I hope in 
time, the new book that Ingvild is writing on SignWriting, in Norwegian 
and Norwegian signs, can stimulate some experiments in the classrooms 
in Norway. Any teacher in Norway, who writes to me and asks for some 
donated materials for their Deaf students, will get sample videos, cds 
and some literature..and although the written literature will be in ASL 
and English, it could stimulate some teachers and students to try to 
write Norwegian signs...If you know of any teacher interested, please 
ask them to write to me...

And you are right, that SignWriting can be used in other arenas...and 
not just for "biliteracy in a native Sign Language", but also for 
writing down any kind of signing that is helpful for a student...for 
example...there are some who teach "mentally-retarded deaf" with 
SignWriting, and in Albuquerque they are having success with autistic 
children who are reading signs now...their teacher, Dr. Cathy Witty, is 
convinced that SignWriting is helping her autistic Deaf students...

Val ;-)

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


On Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at 08:12 AM, Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen 
wrote:

> 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.
>