Blast it. I accidentally hit send too soon.... please continue here:
MY FATHER NAME JOE
Which we would write or say in English
My father's name is Joe.
The same meaning could be signed
FATHER MY NAME JOE
But in this I agree, most SW tends to favor the English word order of MY
FATHER instead.
That still doesn't make it English.
As to why SW will help Deaf children learn English.. Yes it is very true that
English is the Lingua Franca of the United States and the global business
world. However, note that hearing kids don't learn to read and write English
without already being fluent in it first. Hearing kids can learn that "pah"
is a "p" and how to reason out the written symbols and make sense of the
writing. With SW, Deaf kids will have the ability to reason out the written
symbols and make sense of the writing. Then, once they have learned HOW
writing works, HOW it correlates to language, they can then learn to read and
write English even though they have never spoken it.
Deaf kids can be taught the rules of signed grammar through the use of
written signs....and once that concept is understood, the rules of spoken
language grammar can then be taught using written words.
As for the teacher who doesn't have time to teach sign writing and English...
pick Sign Writing. Teach the child how to better use their natural language,
and expand their linguistic skills as far as possible. Then, with luck,
their next teacher will be able to take a child that is both fluent and
literate in their native language and teach that child a second
language....English.
:::::stepping off the soapbox now:::::
Cecelia Smith
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