AW: [sw-l] Some more questions...

Thu Apr 28 18:09:16 UTC 2005

Hello Cathy, 

I loved to read your article -  

well I did not sent extra information - just because I thought that the
hundreds of pages of my website  www.gebaerdenschrift.de  would be enough to
get an impression about the possibilities and chances -- 

What I understand better - the longer I use SW at school is -- 

I have got no idea any more that any teacher of deaf children could believe
that there is an alternative to using the written form of the strong
language (SignLanguage) in order to teach the Spoken Language. 

At least all hearing students learn a foreign language with modern
multimedia - documents - and of course there are written texts, explanations
for grammar, vocabulary lists (left column first language - right row second
language) 
So - since I use GebaerdenSchrift this way in my curriculum my students show
wonderful progress ... 

This aspect of building a powerful and simply wonderful bridge between the
two systems is not mentioned that clearly in your article. 

Same aspect the other way round. So many hearing people would love to learn
SL - but after having finished the courses on level 2 or 3 they get lost -
many of them - I bet that most of the foreign language courses reach a
better level of competence compared to SL - courses due to the fact that so
far there haven´t been written documents of this exceptional quality -

Now with hundreds and hundreds of phrases, questions, dialogues, role plays,
stories hearing people will get a good chance to develop a feeling for the
grammar and variety of SL. 

What about the SL instructors - now they get the chance to prepare materials
for instruction and tests! They can exchange email - questions on how to
sign /translate a given sentence --- about special signs for persons, cities
, countries .. 

What you need to use SW as such a powerful tool is to become a skilled
reader and writer. SignPuddle is a great tool - but you need a program that
allows to write print media within seconds - With the good old SW44 DOS
program we can use a database of more than 10.000 entries - but we need a
dictionary that allows to collect many more signs. 

So we are waiting with high spirits for people like Daniel Noelp
(Switzerland) and Lars Majewski (Germany) to create Computer-Programs that
allow this kind of typing. 

How long does it take - to learn ... (Ha - depends on you and your
background! -)

It takes less than a week to become a pretty good reader - if you would
visit one of my workshops (smile!)

But on the other hand - Yes it takes a long time to become a skilled writer.

It would be best to take a class and to do afterwards your own homework
(study the given materials - email lessons, textbooks, documents, documents
that are written by skilled scribes such as Valerie Sutton!  - and write
them again. Copy these documents. Read them again. Try to memorize the
spelling and do it by hand. Again - and again - and again - 

Just do it -- (smile) here and there and everywhere . (see attachment - we
made pavement drawings this morning at our school!)

Write down hundreds and hundreds of handshapes in all different
orientations. 

The Parkhursts offered valuable ideas how to develop writing skills. 

 Then it is absolutely neccessary to ask skilled scribes for their opinion
if you want to become a skilled writer. 

In the beginning all of us made a lot of
mistakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And without hundreds of feed-back - messages I would not know many, many
details -- 

And though you can give anybody the bonus of understanding - I prefer to
understand the meaning and standards of the given Symbol set in the IMWA. 

So what I would suggest in the beginning is to write signs with no meaning
but kind of general movement quality - ( left index finger touching left
shoulder - 
flat hand rubing at the back of your head, hands clapping parallel to the
floor 3 times .... ) 

>From my point of view newcomers need kind of orientation about the general
rules - (which can be taught easily) but more of that they need kind of
company to understand many little details that are not so obvious in the
beginning. 

In the end the scribe has to decide what he wants to express with his
document. His reason to write a special documents determines the way he
tries to get along. How many details - mouthgestures - or Mundbilder -
bodyshifts - dynamics ...  If for example I write a document for my deaf
students at 4th grade I want them to become competent to translate this idea
into the Spoken Language -
So every sign needs to be identified clearly which is almost impossible for
the German Sign Language if you neglect the mouthmovements that go along
with the signing ...  

In the end - it would be great if you would add some SignWriting - symbols
to your article - 

What about a nice TT - font headline as an eye catcher this gives a first
orientation about that you are writing about "Sutton SignWriting" 

(And just by the way - what is SignFont????? ) 

Anyway - thanks for your article - 

Stefan Wöhrmann   (teacher of deaf students in Germany)  

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
[mailto:owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] Im Auftrag von
cathyh at bda.org.uk
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 28. April 2005 18:16
An: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
Betreff: [sw-l] Some more questions...

Hello

I've put together an article using the information members of this group
sent me. I have attached it for your interest. I'd also really appreciate
it if some of you took the time to read it and check for any factual
mistakes

I also havbe another question: What advice would you have for those who
want to take up SignWriting? Can it be self-taught, or are you best to go
to a class? Where would people be able to find a class?

Once you start learning, how long does it take to learn?

Thanks for your help and hope to hear from you soon!
Best regards
Cathy
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