posted
My job is really boring, so I have a lot of free time to think, and I thought of an interesting question today
American Sign Language is a whole language of its own, with its own syntax, styles and forms. A lot of the meaning comes from facial expressions, or where you sign things, so whole parts of speech that we have to write out are just implied through minute details (I'd give examples, but I'm not very good at it yet, and I'd probably be wrong.
So, when a deaf person starts learning to read written english, it must be incredibly difficult, learning all these different words for the same sign, and how to tell the connotations of each one, and all these tenses that they're used to inferring by facial expression or other signals they don't even realize they notice. So learning to read english as we speak it....is tough. (A little princess, for example, is a highschool level book, and even they would have trouble with it)
So I wonder, if someone was going to write a book for deaf people, how ought it to be changed? What sort of ways would one insert hand position in relation to the body, or facial expression to words in print? What would you do?
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I once worked with a deaf young woman for a short period of time, and she often wrote very long letters to all of us. I know that you also read quite a bit. Not sure how difficult it was for her to learn, however. Interesting question.
posted
I'm working at a school for the deaf, and all the kids seem to have a very hard time learning-and the adults often have horrendous grammar when they write
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I don't have the faintest idea. It seems like there would be no easy way to capture in writing even a few of the nuances which are possible in sign. I know there was at one time a movement to try to teach deaf students to sign correct english, to help them with their literacy in general, I suppose, but I don't know if signed english is anyone's native language. I would expect it is not.
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posted
Kids who grow up with one or more (signing) deaf parents are often native Ameslan speakers, I believe.
But I don't think that Ameslan would translate well to a written form -- it's impossible to learn properly using just books, for example.
Also, even spoken English differs markedly from (formal) written English. And woe to those students of mine who fail to grasp that point when they turn in papers! Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I can imagine a written version of ASL that resembled the Chinese writing system, with pictographs arranged in the unique ASL grammatical structure.
I had a deaf friend once for whom it was impossible to write a coherent sentence. He would try very hard, and sometimes other deaf people could get it, but I never could.
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