Language Development

Language Development in Hearing Children

    For the average hearing person it is hard to know the exact moment when language developed inside. For the many though it is known to be early, the natural environment in which one grows up in is continuously surrounded by language. As for me I know that my mother and father talked to me right out of the womb. Talking to me everyday since March sixth!

    After reading the first chapter in Language Learning Practices with Deaf Children, Rose greatly introduces the theories behind language development in children who are hearing. The theories I would most agree with Sociocultural Theory and the Behavior Theory. It is the theory that emphasizes that the development of language is attainable by one child's interaction with members of a society. I think this can directly relate to children who or hearing and those who are deaf. Placing a child in a language rich environment enhances their language just simply from the exposure they are receiving. This theory focuses on the power of conversation. I hope as a future teacher to teach and learn through conversation in my classroom. For a child to communicate they must have listening skills to receive and respond but also comprehension skills to simply listen. The strength in ones conversation can show the range of language one contains. In addition, I believe in the influence of the environment on the intake of language. The behavior theory has the idea that the consumption of language is innocently done with the learner being passive who is just responding to stimuli in the environment. Again, a student is learning unknowingly through their environment and the actions of others. If appropriate vocabulary and language are available for children it is received naturally.

Language Development in Children who are Deaf

    Continuing the reading on the subject of Language development, I found interesting the history of where language comes from and the dire need to know where it originates was and has been an every longing question. In the first chapter, Schirmer, is gives the reader a beautiful analogy of language and the growth of a plant. It is worded in a way that creates such a clear statement for those who are hearing and those who are deaf. The child begins life with a seed full of language capability and cognitive potential. The child just needs a fertile environment to help and enable the seed of language to grow and bloom with knowledge.
    The chapter also touched on an area of topic that I have been scrambling to figure out in my own mind lately, inner speech. Vygotsky views external speech as speech for others, turning thought into words and internal speech as speech for oneself, turning speech into inward thoughts. I always wondered about the speech with in an individuals mind. I wondered if the same inner thought process occurred in those who were Deaf or hard of hearing. The chapter mentions that as we have inner speech a person who is Deaf has inner sign. They are constantly using their inner eye, which can be another name for their inner speech, to take visual-gestures and turning them into a comprehensible language, ASL or English. I found this point so fascinating and parallel to my own thoughts of inner speech, it mirrors the individual's language.


On the topic of language development there are endless resources to learn from about this interesting topic. I feel as a future educator I will always be learning about the development of language within my own mind and those of my students. The more I can learn the more I can be of benefit to my students.

Assessment of Language

Assessment for an educator can be more than just a test. I have been taught this very concept over and over again but it was reintroduced to me in the 4th chapter of Peter Paul's book.

The book highlighted on the idea that when planning for the assessment of a student it is best to first start out with a personal assessment. A teacher would benefit from knowing the family background and culture of the student. I think the author finds this beneficial for a few reasons, one being the connections that can be drawn from the students history. Second, the teacher could keep record of the students information for future activities. In addition, the teacher could collect the information of a home support team. In addition to a personal assessment this can also work for students who are Deaf or Hard of hearing. In an assessment it should also collect background demographics such as age of onset and degree of impairment. It is important to get to know your students and to use critical information to supplement their education.

When it comes to Formal Testing it is translated in to the diagnostic information used by teachers.

• There is no great deal of formal language tests that have been standardized on students who are Deaf of Hard of Hearing. 
• However there are many things a student who has a hearing loss can be tested on...
• When considering language there are numerous test options
1. English Grammar
2. ASL Grammar
3. English Word Meaning
4. ASL Word Meaning
5. Spoken English versus Signed English
6. Vocabulary of Instruction and Test-Taking
7. English Prgmatics Skills
8. ASL Pragmatic Skills
9. Classroom Discourse Rules
10. Figurative Language

(Easterbrooks, Chapter 4)

When looking for more in depth information on the child's language uses these informal tactics:

• Self Evaluation Checklist
• Portfolios
• Observations of Performance

Notions

• Reliability-refers to the consistency or stability of test scores across several examination time frames.
• Validity-does a test measure what it was designed to measure?
• Practicality-referring to issues such as administration time, special equipment needs, costs of materials, scoring procedures, and special arrangements for individuals with disabilities or specific conditions.
• Authenticity and Washboard-(a test for example) to be authentic the test should contain items or tasks that reflect the language use of the students in the classroom and out side environment. For a washboard it is the impact of the test and what it might have on instruction and the curriculum.

After learning a little bit more about assessment I have gathered the complexity of the task. A lot will go into my future planning of assessment whether it be a personal assessment or a post-assessment after a long day of learning. I hope to take the many words read and store them as a great resource for when it comes time to implement all that I have learned. I enjoyed the two assigned chapters and know now that I as a teacher am the most important agent of assessment.

Schools use benchmark testing to see the positive and negative growth of a student, is it possible for benchmarks to be formulated to help the teachers benefit from the results of children who have hearing loss? And if they are already benefiting from these results what are teachers learning from these test results? Are teachers of students with a hearing loss using more of an informal or formal test to mark benchmarks?

For many IEPs the document must contain a written statement of the students communication needs. There is a team that considers this decision, how are they making this decision? How do they know they are making the right one for the child? Do they have the requirements for making the decisions?

ASL is not English on the HANDS

When thinking of my future teaching career I imagine all of my students, with all of their unique characteristics running around in class. All of them deserving a piece of the academic puzzle. As I continue to learn about language and the developmental slope of those who are Deaf or hard of hearing I see the ever rising need for the implication of their second language or first, English.

One thing to be clear of is the difference in American Sign Language and English. Even though they are used in the same country, that does not make them congruent in form. Here are a few examples of the differences between ASL and English:

• Grammatical 
• Space
• Questions
• Reduplication
• Non manual aspects

Out of all of these I found Reduplication to stand out as the huge difference, there is a social and cultural difference that I believe repeated movements is represented through sign. In English this is not a 'thing' (an emphasis of importance) other than the explanation point at the end of a written sentence.

There is no clear-cut transfer from ASL to English.


When reading further into Peter Paul's book Language and Deafness I found many of my questions were getting answered. It supplied me with the many systems of language for people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Before hand I really couldn't weigh in on a conversation about the Oral Approaches to developing English. Unisensory and Multisensory make up the two groups of approaches.

Unisensory - the focus on one primary distance sense...audition.

Multisensory - the equal stress on development of the two primary senses...audition and vision.

To be honest when reading about Cued speech I was growing more and more confused on how this method worked for students and teachers. I understand that it is essential to building and assisting the development of spoken speech but is that the easiest form of language and communication for students. The complexity of all the handshapes, positions, and nonmanual signs would get in the way of putting in personality. It seems to be something very serious and having a main goal of producing words...I do not think I would be a good fit.

As I approached the chapter on sign systems, I became more familiar with the Rochester Method of sign. It is a sign system that expects the user or learner to acquire English words and their spelling (at a fast past when mastered). It is also expected for the learner to recognize the words in print and to write them correctly. This method is solely depended on fingerspelling and speech as communication. I stumbled across a video that shows the speed and reality of one who uses the Rochester method.  

Faster ABC Fingers-Deaf Rock


Overall, this book draws me closer and closer to the language opportunities for those who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I am learning of the nature of ASL and the sign systems that surround the language. From Deaf Epistemologies to Oralism I am learning the many means to becoming a teacher for those who are Deaf and Hared of Hearing. But for now I still have a few questions...

• With all the sign systems including ones such as Rochester and or ASL how can it be that students in the USA are only reaching a 4th to 5th grade level reading when graduating high school?
• With the verb and adjective issues in ASL how can grammar than be compared to a student's second language, the grammar in English?
• Grammar and linguistics of ASL have only been studied for a few decades, so why is the research so limited? Is there a delay in the projects due to limited resources, or no clear place to start?

Language in the Classroom

When reading another chapter in Language and Deafness, I can feel myself learning more and more about language. I am slowly understanding that the more I can understand about language the more I can help my future students to acquire new language skills by providing an enriching environment.

From all the information filled into one chapter, I will admit that teaching language will not be an easy task (for me at least). To jump from understanding English to jumping into the world of ASL, life will be hard. Words such as bank and many more that have more than one meaning will be needing great explanation for my students.

For when I do teach language, I will choose to focus on the theoretical frameworks of language, such as environmental, cognitive, and social. Although, it seems that no theory is the same, one can assume that they can be stacked and used together. When I do become a teacher my job will consist mainly of planning activities and plans for the students to effectively learn in my classroom. I would have to have daily routines to include the introduction and continuation of language.

Here are some activities I would include in my school day...

• To start, I want to fill each morning of my class with conversation, simply having interactions between my students and their teacher. I want my students to form connections with other students. In the beginning I will model questions to ask their neighbor or friend, making for a great opener to any day. As the day goes on I will continue to prompt the students and to foster language. 
• When it comes to instruction and physical work I would like to begin my language lesson with a sentence, one of ill grammar. As the book mentions, students need exposure to language and those who have a language disability need even more adequate exposure. I want to expose my students daily with the structure of language. They will be challenged to figure out what is wrong with the sentence and give me ways in which it can be correctly written (grade depending). I feel that introducing it in small doses at any grade level will build the foundation for a strong language base. 
• In continuation of their foundation, my school days will be filled with a nurturing environment. I know that my students will be forever processing language. In my classroom I predict that I will have both passive and active learners so it will be my job to continue to guide them from when they enter the classroom until they leave. A big part of my classroom will be having discussions, having my students speak up, take turns, and follow in any appropriate social conversation. Overall, I hope to have a classroom filled with conversation, the link to all language. Language will be naturally learned and physically received. 

I believe people who are hearing take language for granted and have no idea how difficult the development of it is. This chapter leaves me wondering what it will really be like to teach language to those who are in fact Deaf or Hard of hearing. What are some of the common language difficulties that face students who are Deaf or Hard of hearing? How will I get a written and spoken language across to my students if I am only signing?

As of right now I would not say I could teach language tomorrow to a group of students who were Deaf but, I know by the end of this book I will be knowledgeable about all the aspects of language. For all the minor details and vocabulary will be stacked in my brain.

Language?

"Why do we use language?" 

                                                                                           Crystal (1997, p.10)

For many this question has never popped up into their minds, but for me lately it has. While reading Language and Deafness, by Peter V. Paul, it was one of the first things I read and it kind of stuck. To many, language will always be there and will just roll of the tongue but for me there is a need for the break down of it all. How does it all work? How do we come about language? What is language at its smallest form?
     
For me I would have to start by breaking it down, so let us do that together.
Good news, we can break it down into two major sections...

Structure                               &                               Function

            

Both structure and function are very important when it comes to the topic of language.

Structure is the framework, detailed with the components of language. Above and below you can see the five different levels of language and a little bit about what they mean.

Pragmatics-  meaning in context of discourse

Semantics- Literal meaning of phrases and sentences

Syntax- phrases and sentences

Morphology- words

Phonology- phonemes

Phonetics- speech sounds

To think that all of these components make up our structure of language can be a little over whelming. That without truly thinking about each individual morphology we use, our words for the most part come out sounding great. Pretty spectacular if you ask me. 

So how do we use our language, what is its true function? That would be communication. We are always communicating, seems to be everyday and every moment we are using language. Whether you or I are exchanging looks, texting, or yelling something out at a concert we are communicating. It cracks down to the interactions you have with yourself or one another. 

When looking at the breakdown of language it really is not to hard to see the organization of it all, but in reality how complex it would be to take every social interaction and break down the structure in each sound. Nuts!!! Lets just let our brains do all the work. 

Overall, language with its entirety was introduced to me in Chapter two of Peter V. Paul's book. I found it to be very educational with a basic introductory of the structure and function of language. The author did not try to over do the definitions but constructed the chapter in a very organized line of descriptions. 

For me I am a curious one... If I were Deaf and or Hard of hearing would the English language need to be my first experience with language? Would all these levels of language be of little use to one who will never learn to speak, only wishing to sign? What are the main levels to American Sign Language, ASL?