what problems do sign language users face when learning to read English?

Question

I am studying the difficulties faced for sign language users who have never heard sound, in learning to read.

I am particularly interested from the perspective of linguistics. For example is the acquisition of language across hearing and non hearing populations the same? Does having a visual base language help or hinder the process of reading written English? Does phonetics and the ability to hear sound have any major influence?

I would be particularly interested to hear from non hearing people who have faced difficulties in learning to read....what have these difficulties been and how did you overcome them? What developments have been useful and what is still lacking?

I want to hear your views.

Thanks

Answer 1

I grew up hard of hearing and have become progressively deaf. I was fortunate in learning English in those formative years. But the experience of someone who grew up deaf is very different.

The first thing to understand is that the printed word is a encoding of the auditory word. People do not learn their first or native language by first experiencing it in print. Print literature represents an auditory language. Native users of the language represented in print literature must learn to decode the printed word, using their native abilities.

People who have grown up deaf without direct auditory access to the dominant language are at a disadvantage. They will learn to read and write the dominant language (if they do) as a second language. Their ability to do so will be much stronger if they have a strong, solid language foundation. American Sign Language can give them that.

I recommend reading "Raising and Educating a Deaf Child" by Marc Marschark. It is available at Amazon. Visit Marc's website. I have used in text in teaching about these issues.

Ken