ASL is natural for Deaf people because it is a visual language, requiring no sound. Why do Deafies who learn ASL later in their lives, seem to pick it up much more quickly than their hearing counterparts? Is it because they don't have sounds distracting them?
If the Hearies insist that Deaf people wear hearing devices so they can learn English aurally, and in turn, speak English..
... why don't Deafies insist that Hearies wear earplugs so they can learn ASL visually, and in turn, sign ASL?
Rationale: The brain may reroute more nerve activity to the eyes for the duration of the silencing of the ears.
I've brought this up with my classmates in the "ASL & Literacy Instructor Program" at George Brown College. The first response I got was "That's abuse if students are forced to wear earplugs!!". Well, of course, it would be abuse! I'm not proposing that Deafies start stuffing earplugs into their ASL students and hearing children just to acclerate their learning and acquistion of a visual language.
Yet, I am geniunely curious about the 'Deaf Factor' in visual languages. Has any Hearie out there tried voluntarily wearing earplugs in an attempt to better focus on the visual aspect of the language which has a Deaf nature itself, since it came from Deaf people? There is much to learn about the Deaf experience.
Has there been a case study where there was two sets of ASL 101 classes? One with all students using earplugs and another as a regular class (where hreaing students often whispering to eachother and are distracted by environment noises) then comparing the results? Any volunteers for my proposed study?
Cheers!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
We carry 5 different kind of earplugs in our ebay store.
Well, I used to say to my hearing sibs, "Why don't you wear a pair of earplugs so you can get an idea of what my life is like for one day?"
I volunteer - it's sounds like an interesting idea!
In order to reroute, though, I think they would have to be worn all the time. I'm still think I'll bring the earplugs I have in my drawer to class thursday. I need all the help I can get.
I find that I am generally NOT a visually perceptive person, and generally not an expressive person, and I don't generally talk with my hands, so every bit of ASL has been work.
I have tried this with movies, with the sound on and off and when the sound was off, I did notice a lot more happening visually. I don't know why.
I have also tried the earplug thing a few times, and the problem is that earplugs are not like a blindfold. You can still hear pretty well even with earplugs in. It's like wearing sunglasses inside. You can still see everything pretty well, but not quite the same. It's more annoying than helpful, at least for me.
I think it's great idea for them to wear earplugs to get the idea what it's like being deaf. One of your students said it's an "abuse" then tell that person to wear it anyway and tell me how does it feel like when hearing person forces CI on deaf child? Hmm.. Just something to think about....
To really emulate "total" deafness, you'd have to put somebody in a room that's acoustically-isolated (to eliminate environmental low-frequency noise), acoustically-deadened with asbestos spikes (to eliminate noise originating inside the room), wearing active noise-cancellation headphones with in-ear pickups (to nuke the sound of your own breathing and heartbeat). Oh, and give them a short-acting antixylotic drug (like Xanax) first so they won't completely freak out when the absolute silence hits them. Even people who have a blast playing around in a room like that tend to go into complete blinding terror when you flip the switch, and they suddenly can't even hear their own breathing & heartbeat. :-D
awesome. i'm a Hearie, and i'll volunteer as well. the Deaf experience is a natural part of learning sign language. if there hasn't yet been a study on this, i propose one be undertaken. i'm sure the results would be quite telling.
something that's worked for me is to be completely immersed in sound, like loud music in a club. even though i'm hearing i don't often go to bars or clubs with non-signing hearing friends because i don't want to shout over the music and loudness of everything and i can't hear what people are saying. in those situations i prefer to sign and feel myself "flipping the switch" into more visual mode.
I've heard of devices called "maskers" which are kind of like hearing aids that generate white noise to mask background sounds and simulate the deaf experience. anyone know about these?
I'm learning ASL right now, my first teacher for levels 1 and 2 had some oralism training and would speak the words for some signs to help us out. Now in level 3 my teacher is COMPLETELY SILENT. It's a great new experience.
As far as pulling away from the Sign-English tendencies that come with being a hearing person learning to sign, I've been trying to harwire the signs to their meanings. Picturing paper in my mind when I sign "paper" instead of thinking the word "paper" when I sign it.
I see hearing people all the time on the subway with their ipods in because they want to shut out the world, but then they don't even pay attention to their surroundings... I agree with "anonymous" and the total deafness room idea.
Post a Comment