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?