SW and bilingualism

[Susanne Mirring]

Dear List, Stephanie and James,

I found the email messages in the archives, Stephanie, and think your research
is about a very interesting topic. Do you have any results by now?
You wrote about these two children who had no language communication before the
age of 5. I remember a book which I read several years ago (I think the
author ±±  name is Susan Schaller) about a deaf man who did not have any exposure
to language until he was an adult. It is not a scientific book, but an
interesting story.

For my work about bilingualism I am asking a similar question about the first
or natural language of deaf children. Perhaps you are interested so I will
write some details
ÿÿ t first I want to compare the situation of a deaf child of hearing parents to
the situation of an immigrant child who are both involved in a bilingual
education program. Both the deaf and the immigrant child are communicating in
one language at home and in the other language at school. The immigrant parents
often have less competence in the majority language like hearing parents are
not familiar with sign language.
But there are some differences that do not allow a complete comparison e  so I
have to modify some details to the situation of the deaf child. But more about
this later

ÿÿ econdly, many deaf people do not want to be seen as disabled people. They want
to be accepted as a language minority and demand the same rights as these
groups, especially in education. In Germany, there are living three groups of
German people whose first language is not German. They are accepted as language
minorities and have special rights, e.g. the determination of curricula, great
influence on educational questions at school, lessons in their first language
and so on.
My other comparison will be between these groups and the Deaf. By the
acceptance of sign language and its written form as the first language of deaf
children, there would be political consequences such as more influence and
involvement of the Deaf in educational questions.
I do not know yet if these comparisons are useful or even possible because the
main difference could be the perception problem. But I want to find out and
keep working on it
ÿÿ ames wrote a long email with some very interesting questions about the
realization of the project. Thanks for this! You gave me good ideas and showed
me problems I perhaps would have neglected or underestimated. That is very
useful to my work although it is a theoretical one. It has to be finished it
within three months so there will be no time to make any practical experiences
ÿÿ  would really be glad to read more about your experiences in Bluefield. Where
can I get some information?

Thanks for your ideas,
Susanne