[sw-l] LITERACY Project Report, Belgium (Flanders)

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 4, 2005

> Flemish SignWriting Literacy Project continued...

2. Goldilocks & The Three Bears, SW Level 2
Basic ASL Storybook

a. Were your students ready for this book, when they finished SW Level 
1? If not, what was lacking in their knowledge, that made it too 
advanced for them?

Yes, the students were ready for this book. We did not make level 2 too 
complicated so it was not too difficult for them to read it. We 
discovered that we can take as much or little time as we want to work 
with the level 1 book. So once the children are familiar with the 
concept of SignWriting and how it works, they can concentrate on 
actually reading a story in short sentences. We feel it is important 
the children really understand what SignWriting is and that it’s 
purpose is to READ before they start in the level 2 book.

b.How did the students react to reading complete sentences in ASL? Was 
it hard for them, or was it an easy experience for them?

At first the children mostly focused on the signs individually. After 
they understood each sign we made them read the sentence again. Because 
it is in VGT, their first language, it was fairly easy for the kids to 
understand what they were reading. But as with learning to read in any 
given language. You first learn to read without much understanding and 
after a lot of practice comes the comprehention of what you are 
reading.

What is diffrent for the children between reading this book or reading 
any book in Dutch is that it’s much easier for them to understand the 
Goldilocks books. They know the signs so well, while a lot of Dutch 
words still have to be translated to a sign before they understand what 
it is.

If the kids see this word:    HUIS

They first have to think what it is. What is the sign for this word? 
They have to translate into another language... from Dutch to 
VGT.                    
 
But if they see this sign:

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The sign immediately has meaning for them. It’s a sign they use 
constantly.

What we noticed was, once the children got used to reading the signs 
and they knew it had meaning... they absolutely loved reading it. It is 
so much easier then reading Dutch. And made them more proud and aware 
of their beautiful first language, Flemish Sign Language (VGT). 
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