| As
published in Odyssey,
Fall 2003
In Search of Keys to English Print in
PDF (6 pages, 108 kb)
In Search of Keys to English Print
By Jane K. Fernandes
Provost
Gallaudet University
Many researchers on language and literacy believe that the ability
to decode the sounds of new words is a critical skill to develop
for reading success. Without decoding skills, researchers say, a
child will have enormous difficulty learning to read. According
to this research, excellent phonics instruction is necessary but
not sufficient for becoming a reader. To be a successful reader,
students need an early phonics emphasis, but this foundation does
not necessarily translate to increased reading comprehension. In
addition to an early phonics emphasis, family literacy practices
and effective school programs are key variables in developing successful
readers. Taken collectively, the resources that schools, families,
and teachers bring to the activity of reading impacts the child’s
emergence as a reader.
In deaf education, we have a strong research focus on family literacy
strategies and school programs. The research on the role of phonics
in reading has focused primarily on hearing children. Now many in
the field of deaf education are wondering how this work applies
to children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Do successful deaf
readers develop a system of phonological awareness that enables
them to decode words? If they do, when and how does it happen? If
deaf readers don’t develop phonological decoding skills, how
do they learn to read? Is there research to help us understand how
this process takes place in children who are deaf or hard of hearing?
In looking around the deaf community, I see many people of all
ages and backgrounds who are skilled readers and writers. And while
many of them possess what seems to be a phonological awareness of
English, in fact a few do not present any evidence of such awareness.
This high level of literacy development, in the apparent absence
of phonological awareness in deaf individuals who are able to read
and write well, is a linguistic conundrum, but it suggests that
answers to how to better teach reading and writing can be found
by looking into the general population of deaf people. Examining
how this process works could ultimately lead to a new understanding
of literacy, just as William C. Stokoe’s work on linguistics
of American Sign Language led to a new definition of language.
Several schools and programs for deaf and hard of hearing students
in the United States have been looking hard at the relationship
between phonological abilities and reading, including rhyming, the
use of phonological decoding while reading, and the phonics abilities
of good deaf readers. Findings suggest that deaf individuals from
both oral and signing backgrounds acquire knowledge of the relationship
between the pronunciation of a word and its written form and that
this knowledge facilitates success in reading. It is exciting because
several authors seem to suggest that Cued Speech can and should
be employed as part of a bilingual approach to learning.
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At the other end of the spectrum, some schools are using a variety
of other learning strategies. Among these strategies are ways to
teach reading and writing that include a focus on American Sign
Language and English without any reliance on sound. Findings from
these programs suggest that their techniques also lead to the development
of a solid foundation for reading success in deaf learners and confirm
the work of Carol Padden and Claire Ramsey, who found that “the
better readers in our study have made an alternate discovery in
which they form association between elements of a signed language
and elements of written language as they acquire the ability to
read (Padden & Ramsey, 2000, p. 168).” These researchers
posit that deaf children do not learn to read in the same way that
hearing children do because the absence of hearing denies them an
innate ability to associate what they hear with what is written
and because the languages and communication modalities of deaf children
do not always lend themselves to a linkage with printed English.
This publication highlights a number of tools that some educators
feel are important in helping deaf children to establish an internal
system for understanding words they see printed on a page, to promote
higher levels of literacy. That so many are looking into the same
issue indicates that the field of deaf education, almost by consensus,
is zeroing in on ways to boost the literacy levels of deaf and hard
of hearing students. The picture presented is that of a vast national
panoply of options to help children develop an inner system that
supports their efforts to successfully read words that are unfamiliar
to them and make meaningful sense of what they have read for their
own purposes.
Many in our field are now promoting teaching and learning practices
that support the use of tools or strategies to help provide a “key”
that will open up English to the child. Several tools or strategies
highlighted in this issue are based on ways to impart phonology
to deaf children, including the use of phonics, signs, Cued Speech,
and fingerspelling. In addition, other learning strategies that
build pre-reading skills, such as memory and focusing, are presented.
Some authors clearly believe that a visual representation of English
is needed to build an inner system that connects with English phonology.
Others clearly feel that text-based programs that promote high levels
of literacy in American Sign Language will result in high levels
of English over time. Still others are working with both. What remains
to be seen, through evaluation and research, is which tools are
most successful with which students and whether schools can match
the method needed with the individual children they are responsible
for teaching.
The keys—techniques and strategies incorporated into the
programs described in this issue—seem to have helped some
children make critical connections to written English and are emerging
as an important part of deaf education in the United States. Are
each of these keys a necessary component in a fully implemented
school reading program or are they simply helpful tools for specific
students who find themselves in a situation where many of the conditions
needed to move readily into literacy do not exist?
The array of techniques in use for teaching reading today is vast.
But they may not be so far removed from one another as they seem.
All capitalize on a tool for helping deaf and hard of hearing children
connect their growing linguistic competence and world knowledge
with English print. For example, in terms of what they intend to
accomplish, the adapted Dolch word lists are in many ways like the
American Sign Language gloss/print resource book developed by Sam
Supalla and Laura Blackburn.
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Each year, the reading and writing levels of new students entering
Gallaudet University rise. The hard work of dedicated educators
in elementary and secondary schools throughout the nation is clearly
reflected in the increasingly qualified students who come here.
In close partnership with Gallaudet University, the Laurent Clerc
National Deaf Education Center is committed to fostering a national
dialogue about reading and deaf children. As a field, we seem to
be on the verge of making some real breakthroughs. The schools featured
in this issue are at the cutting edge of work on reading and children
who are deaf or hard of hearing. Research and evaluation on each
type of tool featured here are critical and the sharing of that
information widely is necessary. At the Clerc Center, we intend
to monitor new developments closely in the field of teaching reading
to deaf and hard of hearing children and share that information
with you. This publication is a first step in that direction.
Reference
Padden, C., & Ramsey, C. (2000). American Sign Language
and reading ability in deaf children. In C. Chamberlain, J. Morford,
& R. Mayberry (Eds.) Language acquisition by eye. (pp.
165-189). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
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