Deaf education and SL literacy

[Susanne Mirring]

Dear list, Arnfinn, Ron, Stephanie and Val,

thanks a lot for your answers. Some of your thoughts gave me new ideas about
this topic e
I totally agree with you that writing sign languages has an importance for
political matters. In Germany, it has been a long process to recognize sign
language as a  ϡ eal m  language and I think this process still goes on. A number
of my university teachers still believe in that  œ× ral tradition m  and do not use
signs  o  they never started learning ANY sign. Perhaps a writing system like
SignWriting could help to make sign languages stronger  o  like any written
language is more accepted than an oral dialect.
Some friends of mine asked me why deaf people need to write sign
language:  ϴ hey are able see  o  so they are able to read! m   I always try to
explain and show that sign language is a language of its own  o  and no signed
translation of German spoken language.
In my work I want to point out that we are not talking about one language in
different mediums (spoken, written, signed) but that we have to talk about
different language systems. As you said, Arnfinn, writing a language is more
than just transcribing it. In my opinion this is the most important reason for
including a sign notation system in deaf education. Like hearing pupils, deaf
children also need to know and use a written form of their first language  o
with all its special characteristics.
At the moment I try to find out which effects the development of first language
literacy has on other skills (cognitive, social e  . Does (bi)literacy have any
influences?
Stephanie, I am very interested in your research and would be happy to get that
email message

ÿÿ  will write more soon - some ideas and questions just arise by writing about
it and reading other people ª±  thoughts

ÿÿ usanne