Bilingual-Bicultural Success for Deaf Children: Overcoming Misconceptions

1. “In Tulsa, Oklahoma and Salem, Oregon, New York City, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota and in cities and towns throughout this nation, a deaf or hard of hearing child sits in a classroom, full of promise, energy, and intelligence. This child like all other children in this nation, hungers to learn, has dreams to pursue, and has the native ability and determination to become a productive adult and partake in our American democracy. This student may be profoundly deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) as her native language or he may be hard of hearing and relies exclusively on aural/oral language.” National Agenda, 2004

2. Bilingual-Bicultural=Success for Deaf Children ? Ryan Commerson, BA Mott Community College Yasmina Bouraoui, MPH and Kylie Sharp Michigan Department of Community Health Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program

3. Faculty Disclosure Information • In the past 12 months, I have not had a significant financial interest or other relationship with the manufacturer(s) of the product(s) or provider(s) of the service(s) that will be discussed in my presentation. • This presentation will (not) include discussion of pharmaceuticals or devices that have not been approved by the FDA or if you will be discussing unapproved or "off-label" uses of pharmaceuticals or devices.

4. Current Deaf Education:A Dismal Failure • 1965: Congressional Babbidge Report declares Oral Education a failure. • 1988: The Commission on Education of the Deaf – “the results of deaf education have failed to live up to our expectations and investments.”

5. Why? • Basically, in layman terms, Deaf children have been traditionally viewed as to have a hearing disability as opposed to being “bilingual.” • When seen through a pair of disability lenses, American Sign Language is often viewed as an inhibitor to speech development. (ie: SimCom)

6. Misconceptions Debunked • Contrary to age old belief, American Sign Language is a language. In 1955, Dr. William Stokoe conducted research and proved “scientifically and unequivocally that [ASL] meets the full criteria of linguistics phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and use of language to be classified a fully developed language.”

7. Misconceptions con’t • Modes and Languages are two different things. • Simultaneous Communication (SimCom) is not a language. • Total Communication (TC) is an educational philosophy which became, in practice, “SimCom.” • English is not a mode of communication, it is a language. Therefore, ASL is not a mode of communication, it is a language.

8. Speaking Writing Signing Gesticulating Drawing Signing Exact English Cued Speech English Spanish French American Sign Language (ASL) British Sign Language (BSL) Lengua de Señas de Costa Rica (LESCO) Modes of Communication vs. Languages

9. Simultaneous Communication:What does it look like? Example #1: TELL SAY HORSE RABBIT NO Tell… tell the Easter Bunny … He said, “No, he’s Example #2: [-------unintelligible-------] YELLOW FLOWER [----] OTHER 1 Those are purple flowers. I said yellow flowers. Get another one. English made visible on hands (Signed English) is not accessible linguistically. (S.E.E. is not a language). The child (4th grader) will need to be competent in English in order to understand “English on Hands” utterances. Spoken English is not readily accessible due to child’s varying degrees of deafness. Even with Cochlear Implants, the child does not hear 100%. Examination by Dr. Robert Johnson and Dr. Carol Erting, “Unlocking the Curriculum: Principles for Achieving Access in Deaf Education” (1989)

10. Deaf Students Reading and Writing Scores: • Average 18-19 year old deaf student is reading at the level of an average 8-9 year old hearing student (Traxler, 2000) • Deaf students increase their reading level about 0.3 grade levels per year compared to 1.0 grade level for many public school hearing students (Paul, 2003, citing Allen, 1986)

11. Background: • 1960’s - researchers recommend bilingual/bicultural approaches utilizing deaf student’s preferred/dominant language – American Sign language (ASL) and English • 1990’s – Deaf Educational professionals meet to discuss ways to achieve bilingualism • 2000 – Jim Cummins ‘Linguistic Interdependency model’ developed – suggests that when a student’s first language (both spoken and written) is well developed, a second language may be easily acquired and learned

12. Background: • Deaf students • Typically have significant gaps in early language acquisition and development • By age 5, are often just beginning the language acquisition and development process • Deaf students of Deaf parents-develop their bilingualism simultaneously; ASL often becomes preferred or dominant language • Deaf Students of Hearing parents-develop their bilingualism sequentially

13. Background: • Deaf students have one pathway (visual) to utilize in acquiring language(s) • Hearing students have two pathways (aural/oral and visual) to acquire and learn language(s) • Hearing monolingual students • Use one language in both school and home environments • Learn first language through auditory/oral pathways supported by visual pathways • At age 5 begin to develop reading and writing skills

14. Background: • Hearing students • pick up conversational (oral) English spontaneously – at home, school, playground, sports events, television, radio • Hearing students use conversational (oral) English as scaffold to learn more complicated academic language used in school • Deaf students • use conversational (written) English through e-mail, TTY calls, or note writing • Social or conversational English involves reading and writing, more similar to academic language than social language • Must make exceedingly concerted effort to acquire English through reading and writing

15. Issue: • Deaf students have one pathway (visual) to utilize in acquiring language (s) • The educational system demands Deaf students adopt English without an internalized linguistic resource, ie: strong first language base • Deaf student has many more challenges than the hearing bilingual student in the process of attaining English as a second language

16. Deaf children of hearing families: • Often exposed to visual language such as ASL only after other methods have failed • Current practices include trial and error approaches over 3-5 years • Result is delay in ASL and English language acquisition

17. Deaf children of deaf families: • Have accessible primary language provided at home (ASL) • Often have rich language and communication at home • Communication meaningful and accessible • Feeling of normalcy being deaf

18. Therefore… ASL/English Bilingual Education

19. On Bilingualism • “Bilinguals are those people who use two or more languages (or dialects) in their everyday lives. This includes people who have spoken skills in one language and written skills in the other (a situation that is akin to the Deaf who sign one language and read/write the other), people who speak two languages to varying degrees of proficiency, all the way to people who have complete skills in their two (or more) languages.” François Grosjean (1992)

20. On Biculturalism • Biculturals are characterized by at least three traits: • (a) they live in two or more cultures, • (b) they adapt, at least in part, to these cultures (their attitudes, behaviors, values, etc.), and • (c) they blend aspects of these cultures. François Grosjean (1992)

21. Star Schools Project • 1997 – New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD) proposes ASL/English bilingual framework for teaching two languages • Developed an ASL/English Bilingual staff development model • Provided teachers with opportunity to study bilingual theories, first & second language acquisition, literacy development, action research projects

22. Star Schools Project • Established Center for American Sign Language/English Bilingual Education and Research (CAEBER) at NMSD • Research-based center promoting: • Effective ASL/Bi-lingual classroom instructional policies • Current research to teachers • Research-based and consistent with emerging philosophy • Provide accurate information to parents • Share teaching model with other schools for the deaf • Involves 11 residential schools for the deaf

23. Theoretical Foundations • Engaged Learning Principles • Children are engaged in authentic and multidisciplinary tasks • Assessments are based on student’s performance on real tasks • Students participate in interactive modes of instruction • Students work collaboratively • Students are grouped heterogeneously • The teacher is a facilitator in learning • Students learn through exploration

24. Theoretical Foundations (cont’d) • ASL/English Bilingual Staff Development Model • Two-year (four semesters) program for teachers of deaf students (K-12) • Reading assignments, reflective writing assignments, discussions on bilingualism, first and second language acquisition, literacy theories and practices, bilingual assessment

25. Theoretical Foundations (cont’d) • Bilingual Approach (ASL dominance and codeswitching) • ASL Signacy Abilities • Watching or attending (receptive) • Signing (expressive) • English Literacy/oracy abilities • Fingerreading • Fingerspelling • Reading (English Text) • Writing (English text) • Typing (English text) • Lipreading • Speaking • Listening

26. Theoretical Foundations (cont’d) • Development of ASL/English Bilingual Learning Community • Allowed for discussion of sensitive sociopolitical issues re schools, curriculum, language use, and faculty selection (Wrigley, 1992) • Schools for the deaf had historically forbidden the use of sign language (Baynton, 1996; Nover,2000) • Curriculum had often reflected the value of assimilating the deaf child into the hearing world without attention to deaf culture (Keefe, 1982)

27. Theoretical Foundations (cont’d) • Development of ASL/English Bilingual Learning Community • Instructional techniques developed for hearing students were used for instructing deaf children without consideration for their visual learning needs (Nover, 2002) • English-only instructional paradigm hindered progress in finding creative solutions to English underachievement of deaf students (Nover, 2002)

28. Theoretical Foundations (cont’d) • Cultural process of Deaf Child’s acquisition and learning of ASL and English addressed • Language learning for children is part of their enculturation process (Saville-Troike, 1985): • Language is part of culture and is transmitted from one generation to the next • Language is the primary medium through which other aspects of culture are transmitted • Language is a tool that children use to explore their social environment and establish their status and role relationship within it. • Deaf Culture integrated into all aspects of language and literacy instruction, including as part of school curriculum

29. Findings • The deaf students who had teachers participating in the ASL/English bilingual staff development project significantly improved their scores on the Stanford-9 subtests of English vocabulary and English language over three years • The younger group of the ASL/English bilingual students (ages 8-12years) scored significantly higher than the national norms for deaf students on the each of the three Stanford-9 English achievement subtests (i.e., English vocabulary, reading comprehension, and English language).

30. Findings • Parental hearing status did not significantly affect performance on the Stanford-9 English achievement subtests for the younger group (ages 8-12years) of ASL/English bilingual students. Parental hearing status did significantly affect the performance for the older group (ages 13-18 years) of ASL/English bilingual students. The older students with deaf parents produced significantly higher scores on all three Stanford-9 English achievement subtests than did the older students with hearing parents.

31. Findings • The younger group of the ASL/English bilingual students entered a residential school at a significantly younger age than the older group of the ASL/English bilingual students. The younger group entered a residential school at an average age of 6.2 years (ranging from 1 to 11 years of age), while the older group entered a residential school at an average age of 9.6 years (ranging from 5 to 17 years of age).

32. Findings • Profiles of ASL/English bilingual students who were “high achievers” and “high gainers,” in terms of their Stanford-9 scores, revealed an association with these characteristics: high IQ, deaf parents, use of sign at home, hereditary deafness, severe or profound hearing loss, and more years with a teacher involved in the ASL/English bilingual staff development project.

33. Findings • The greater overall length of time that teachers were involved in the project, the more advanced were their levels of use of the ASL/English bilingual training, as revealed by a quasi-experimental design with teacher interviews and the rating scale, “Levels of Use of the Innovation” (Hall, Loucks, Rutherford, & Newlove, 1975). Mentors who were in the project the greatest number of years showed the most advanced levels of their use of the innovation (the ASL/English bilingual staff development project).

34. Findings from the Indiana School for the Deaf • Implemented Bilingual-Bicultural philosophy in 1989; students were graduating at a 3rd-4th grade level • By 2003 the average reading level for graduating seniors at ISD had jumped to 8.6 grade • Average reading level for ALL Indiana graduating seniors was 8.25 grade level • By 2003 59% of ISD students received a diploma and of those students 100% of them went to college

35. Findings from the Indiana School for the Deaf • Improved English skills • Increased hearing aid use • Increased number of students with cochlear implants • Increased demand for auditory services

36. “At the heart of both the wonderful capabilities of these children and the systemic failure to serve them is a fundamental issue of human rights, one that illuminates the truly unique nature of deaf and hard of hearing children: the need and right to develop and be exposed to communication and language. Without communication there can be no educational growth and no personal, emotional, and social development. The need and right to communicate must become the foundation of any educational system for deaf and hard of hearing children for it is so “tightly woven into human experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life” without it.” National Agenda, 2004

37. Contacts • Ryan Commerson, BA chimprock@aol.com • Yasmina M. Bouraoui, MPH and Kylie Sharp Michigan Department of Community Health Early Hearing Detection and Intervention bouraouiy@mi.gov sharpk@mi.gov

38. Allen, T., Patterns of Academic Achievement Among Hearing Impaired Students; Deaf Children in America, San Diego, CA: Little Brown, 1986 Baynton, D.C. Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign Against Sign Language, Chicago: The University Press, 1996 Grosjean, François “The Bilingual and the Bicultural Person in the Hearing and in the Deaf World”, Sign Language Studies, Volume 77, Winter 1992 Indiana School for the Deaf: No Deaf or Hard of Hearing Child Left Behind: They Can Have It All, ASHA Convention, Power Point Presentation, November 2003 Johnson, Robert K., et al: Unlocking the Curriculum: principles for Achieving Access in Deaf Education, 1989 Keefe, J.F., Cultural Reproduction and the Hidden Curriculum: An Investigation into Preschool Programs for the Deaf. (Doctoral Dissertation, Boston University) 1982 Bibliography

39. The National Agenda: Moving Forward on Achieving Educational Equity for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, June 2004 Nover, Stephen M. Star School USDLC Engaged Learning Project No.5 ASL/English bilingual staff development project in Deaf Education; Evaluation and Impact Study; Final Report 1997-2002 Saville-Troike, M. Input in Second Language Acquisition: Series on Issues in Second Language Research, Cambridge, MA: Newbury House Publishers, 1985 Traxler, C. The Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition: National Norming and Performance Standards for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2000 Wrigley, O.P. Sound Knowledge: The Political Meaning of Deafness, (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Hawaii) 1992 Bibliography