Looking over these posts, it seems like a lot of arguing amongst people
who all agree. Most of the confusion seems to stem from one thing; it is
very difficult for most people to think of a language spearately from the
writing system it uses. For example, four quotes just from this one
thread:
.....................
>by sticking with SW rather than English.
......................
>I advocate the use of SW
>but do not think it should REPLACE English
........................
>would rather do all
>their reading and writing in SW rather than bilingually switch
........................
>help the kids make
>the connections and transitions between SW and English?
.......................
Even I (who know better--really I do!!) fell into this trap when I said
that most of the SW I see is signed English. Cecelia rightly pointed out
that this is baloney. While I can write either ASL using
Signwriting, or English using SignWriting, what I usually see written (and
signed for that matter) is the mixture that is often called Pidgin Signed
English. So there are three different languages involved, any of which
may be in SignWriting. If *we* can't keep this straight, what chance do
outsiders have?
We need to try really hard to keep in mind at least these four
situations:
1. SPOKEN ENGLISH written in the ROMAN ALPHABET
2. SIGNED ENGLISH written in the ROMAN ALPHABET
3, SIGNED ENGLISH written in SIGNWRITING
4. ASL written in SIGNWRITING.
And like I said, (just to get back at Cecelia :-)I don't see why SW can't
be English. By providing another way for the teacher to write (signed)
English on the board, it should make their job easier (to the extent that
they know SW). Why force them to make a choice?
_______________________________________
Joe Martin, Plain Old Ordinary Student
Top Left Corner USA
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