Interview with the sign language teacher

Teaching sign language at the schoolThe sign language teacher used to be the speech therapist, but since a couple of years she is focusing on the use of sign language as a support for the normal themes of the lessons. Many deaf children have difficulties understanding the lessons because they find it difficult to understand spoken/written language. These children are guided by sign language teacher who discusses the themes of the lessons by using both spoken/written language and sign language. She is the only sign language teacher, so the time she can spend with each child is limited.

sign language teacher emphasizes the fact that she doesn't actively teach the children to use sign language. She also refers to the taboo on the use of sign language at schools that was the dominant view on education for deaf people for a long time. Only since a couple of years she is allowed to use sign language with the children, but she is not allowed to explicitly teach sign language.

Sign language and spoken/written languageThe sign language teacher explains that the structure of sign language is completely different from the structure of spoken/written language. Translating spoken/written language into sign language literally would make sign language way too slow. In addition, our visual memory has less capacity than our verbal memory, so it is harder to remember a long sentence in sign language than it is in spoken/written language. An example of a difference between sign language and spoken/written language is that in sign language elements from a sentence (mostly objects and subjects) are assigned a location in space. These locations are pointed at when referring to the original elements. This allows for a more speedy use of language and requires less visual memory than constantly repeating the names of the elements.

According to the sign language teacher, the most important reason for deaf children to learn sign language, is that you need to have a strongly developed native language in order to learn other languages later in life (including spoken/written language for deaf children). Children go through a critical period for language learning between the ages of 0 to 5/6 years. In this period, children are able to learn a native language, build their vocabulary, learn to use refined language, start to understand humor, etc. At later ages this is more difficult.

Problems with spoken/written languageEven though almost all deaf children have CI's nowadays, the need to learn sign language is still there. Because even with a CI, deaf children don't hear as much as we do, they miss a lot of auditory information. As a result, deaf children tend to think more black & white, with less nuances. Common language problems for deaf children include sentence constructions, wish expressions ("I wish I had brought my umbrella" includes the past tense (had), which is confusing because a wish is expressed) and the use of articles. Also, text comprehension is very difficult.

Identity and deaf cultureThe sign language teacher emphasizes the importance of the clubs for deaf people, especially for the children's sense of identity and their self confidence. She mentions that for deaf people it is not uncommon to show a lack of perseverance and to "play the victim". By stimulating deaf children to be proud and to fight for their rights, they become more assertive. The teacher gives an example of a girl of whom the teachers thought she was not too bright because she was very introvert and appeared to learn little. After participating in the lessons about deaf culture, this girl became much more assertive and asks for a translator if she needs one. She mentions the term Deaf Proud, which is used in English a lot by deaf communities. Also, the distinction between deaf and Deaf seems to be quite common (deaf refers to physical issues related to being deaf, Deaf refers to identity of deaf people).

Karin