ESL Literacy for a Linguistic Minority: The Deaf Experience
Learning to read and write effectively is a challenging task
for many adults, particularly for those who are deaf. (The term "deaf" is used
here to refer to both deaf and hard-of-hearing people.) In spite of concerted
efforts by educators to facilitate the development of literacy skills in deaf
individuals, most deaf high school graduates read English at roughly a third
or fourth grade level as determined by standardized reading assessments (Allen,1986;
King & Quigley, 1985). In their writing, they often make vocabulary and
structural errors that include omitting or confusing articles, prepositions,
and verb tense markers, and they have difficulty with complex structures such
as complements and relative clauses (Swisher, 1989).
Having limited literacy skills acts as a barrier for deaf people
in the workplace. They often have had limited opportunities at school for vocational
training. They also may have difficulties communicating with hearing co-workers
and poor performance on work-related reading and writing tasks. Because of
these factors, deaf adults in the workplace often find themselves confined
to low-level jobs.
This digest offers possible explanations for these difficulties
and describes new approaches in deaf education that show promise for improving
the literacy skills of deaf adults.
REASSESSING SOURCES OF LITERACY DIFFICULTIES
For centuries, deafness was considered a pathological condition.
Deaf people were considered mentally and educationally deficient due to their
inability to hear and in need of special education and social services to minimize
and correct those deficiencies (for a summary, see McAnally, Rose, & Quigley,
1987). However, following the groundbreaking work of William Stokoe (1960)and
others, there has been a growing trend away from a pathological definition
of deafness (Wixtrom, 1988; Woodward, 1982). Most educators and researchers
in the field of deafness now believe that deaf people share similar language
backgrounds and literacy challenges with other linguistic minority groups.
Their difficulties with acquiring literacy in English are considered to have
linguistic, cultural, and educational rather than pathological roots (Charrow,
1981; Johnson, Lidell, & Erting, 1989; Padden & Humphries, 1988).
LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES
One of the primary causes of difficulty with English literacy
is that English is a language that deaf people have not heard or have heard
only in a limited way. Thus, for them, American Sign Language (ASL) or another
form of manual communication is the most accessible language because of its
visual properties. As Charrow (1981) points out:
It is not the inability to hear that causes the most persistent
problems of prelingually deaf persons, but the enormous constraints that that
inability puts upon the learning and use of the societal language. (p. 187)
Because deaf learners do not have access to English in its spoken
form, the challenge for them of developing literacy skills is much greater,
in some ways, than it is for hearing nonnative English speakers.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
A growing body of literature brings a social/cultural perspective
to the literacy issues concerning deaf people. American Sign Language, the
primary language of many deaf people, is now recognized by linguists as a complete,
legitimate language with complex grammatical structures and extensive vocabulary.
However, ASL is clearly a minority language in a majority culture that tends
not to understand or respect sign language. (Swisher, 1989).
Despite the legitimacy of ASL, many deaf people grow up with
ambivalent attitudes toward their own language, often feeling "inferior to
hearing persons" (Kannapell, 1976, p. 11). Padden (1987) reports that deaf
people's attitudes toward ASL vary between "intense pride" and "a great deal
of confusion and shame" (p. 44; quoted in Swisher, 1989). This ambivalence
extends to English as well. Because of the need to communicate with the non-signing
public and to function in an English-literate society, most deaf adults believe
that English literacy is important. Still, many hold an equally strong belief
that they are unable to master it.
EDUCATIONAL DEFICIENCIES
Since the early 1500s, when educators began to realize that
the "deaf and dumb" were capable of being educated, a variety of approaches
have been used to develop deaf people's literacy. (For a summary, see McAnally
et al., 1987.) Many educators today, however, argue that these approaches have
been woefully inadequate (e.g., Johnson, Liddell, & Erting, 1989). Oral/aural
and phonics-based approaches, for example, have not proven effective, since
for deaf learners, printed words are not connected with sounds. Forms of Manually
Coded English such as SEE (Signing Exact English), developed by educators to
represent English on the hands, are cumbersome to use, do not adequately represent
either English or ASL (Kluwin, 1981), and have had limited success. Remedial
approaches, which have focused on pattern practice, vocabulary lessons, and
teaching explicit rules (Charrow, 1981), break language into parts and do not
allow English to be used in the natural way that it is acquired by hearing
individuals. By adulthood, many deaf learners have had years of failure and
frustration with learning to read and write in English.
CURRENT APPROACHES TO LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
At the same time that they may experience frustration and failure,
most deaf adults understand the need to be literate in English. As well as
being crucial to success in the work world, written English is often the only
way they have to communicate with a non-signing public. Recent, innovative
educational approaches show promise for reversing the cycle of failure. Space
allows only mentioning these approaches briefly, but the references cited provide
ample information about them. Some have been used so far primarily with children,
but may be effective with adults as well, with appropriate modifications.
- Bilingual/bicultural approaches, which integrate ASL and English
and include using videotaped stories in ASL as a precursor to writing compositions
in English (Humphries, Martin, & Coye, 1989; Mozzer-Mather, 1990; Paul,
1987; Quigley & Paul, 1984)
- Whole language and writing process approaches, which focus
on problem-solving skills needed in the workplace and avoid overt correction
of errors and breaking language into parts (Heald-Taylor, 1989)
- Interactive writing, in which deaf learners and teachers converse
in written English on teletypewriters (Lieberth, 1988; Nash & Nash, 1982),
on local- and wide-area computer networks (Peyton & Batson, 1986; Ward & Rostron,
1983), and in dialogue journals (Staton, 1990; chapters in Peyton, 1990)
- Interactive videodisc, in which computerized ASL video and
printed English text are used simultaneously to help deaf learners develop
their English skills (Copra, 1990; Hanson & Padden, 1989)
- Closed captioned TV programs, which allow extensive exposure
to English through a recreational medium (Bean & Wilson, 1989; Spanos & Smith,
1990)
CONCLUSION
Mastering written English is a lifelong struggle for many deaf
people. Deaf adults develop literacy differently than do their hearing peers.
The above instructional approaches, which:
- are student-centered
- require
meaningful use of both ASL and English
- incorporate and build on
the language and cultural backgrounds and actual home and workplace
issues facing deaf adults
- use creative visual means to teach reading
and writing, promise to make the educational process more meaningful,
positive, and successful for deaf learners.
The use of these approaches
for developing the literacy skills of deaf adults needs to be carefully
documented and the degree of success determined.
Article References
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