perspectives in Education and Deafness

ASL to English

Lessons in How Each Language Expresses the Past Time Concept

We tried the following lessons to teach English through American Sign Language (ASL) with six deaf children in a public school day program in Texas. The children, 9 and 10 years old and reading on the first and second grade level, had already received instruction in the past tense concept for English verbs, but they still needed practice, especially with irregular verb forms.

When we evaluated our lesson, we found all six children understood the story when it was rendered in ASL. They could answer simple comprehension questions following the ASL read-aloud. When given a cloze test, all but one child could appropriately add -ed and change the spelling of irregular verbs to the past tense. In writing a summary of the story that included past tense, children showed different levels of achievement. Clearly, these children needed more practice in retelling and writing stories. Nonetheless, they demonstrated comprehension of the way English signals an event happened in the past.

	ABOVE: Enjoying language is an incentive for learning it! Photos courtesy of Jean F. Andrews

Most researchers believe there is no single correct method for language teaching for second language learners who are hearing (Bialystok & Hakuta, 1994; Baker, 1996; Faltis & Hudelson, 1998). Many deaf children, also second language learners, may need a variety of techniques to learn language. Language achievement is made up of a variety of different skills, and each skill may require a different method of teaching. Some aspects of language – cognition and concept development – are best learned by storytelling. Other aspects--such as spelling and, sometimes, vocabulary – are best learned by study and memorization. Reading comprehension requires more general skills in understanding and summarizing ideas. Still other aspects – such as writing compositions – come only with practice.

	Above: Students write about Alfredo’s Magic Mattress Ride, expressing themselves at various levels in printed English. Artist: Joe Henderson

In working with two languages, the classroom situation becomes even more complex. Teachers must be sure to present whole portions of both languages and be able to work "whole to part" and "part to whole" throughout the lesson. Thus the lesson that we present below incorporates a variety of language learning techniques. We start with a "whole to part" approach where we introduce the whole story in ASL (ASL-whole) and complete English text (English-whole). We have the children discuss the story ideas so they can use ASL to talk about concepts (ASL-part). Then reread the English text (English-whole).

We encourage students to retell the story after repeated readings to build comprehension skills.

	Above: Writing is a critical component of every language lesson.

Building on this framework, we focus on explicit instruction of selected linguistic features, in this case the "past time concept." We emphasize fingerspelling and memorization in learning to spell words. We also stress code switching from English print to ASL to develop metalinguistic skills and awareness. Finally, we encourage writing, for it is through reading and writing that the child will best learn English.

ASL to English: A Lesson

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Day 1

Step 1: Introduce the story.
Give each student his or her own printed copy. As a lesson preview, explain to the students that this is fiction, the story of a Mexican boy who dreams that he is travelling around the world on a magic mattress. Show the class a world map and point out the different countries, states, cities and oceans that Alfredo will fly over. Display a transparency of the whole story in English for the class to look at.

Step 2: Sign the story in ASL.
Remember to sign TITLE and sign or fingerspell each word of the title before beginning. Use a map or a globe as a visual aid to show Alfredo's route.

Step 3: Engage the class in discussion.
You may consider leading the discussion with questions such as:

• What did you like most about the story?
• What do you think the fairies looked like?
• How do you think Alfredo felt flying?

Homework:
Have the students draw pictures to illustrate the story. These will be posted on the bulletin board and used later for composition practice.

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Day 2

Step 1: Reintroduce the story.
Put a copy of the story on the overhead projector. Ask the children to read the story silently.

Step 2: Ask the class to retell the story with each student individually taking a turn.
Go round robin, letting each child continue where the last child left off. Encourage students to help each other. Sometimes students will use the exact words from the printed overhead – and that is okay.

Step 3: Have the students circle each of the verbs that end in –ed on the overhead.
Explain each verb by giving the ASL equivalent.

Step 4: Introduce the past time concept.
Explain that the past time concept is expressed in different ways in different languages.

Step 5: Explain the past time concept in ASL.
In ASL, the past time concept may be expressed through the signs BEFORE and FINISH. These time markers can occur before or after the action verb. Past time is also expressed through the inclusion of signs like YESTERDAY, TWO-DAYS AGO, LAST WEEK. Users only need to signal an event happened in the past in the beginning of story; it is not necessary to attach a time marker to each verb.

Step 5: Explain the past time concept in English.
In English, the past time concept is incorporated into verbs. Users must mark each verb within the story to show an event happened in the past. Often this is done with the past tense marker -ed.

Step 6: List all the verbs that end in -ed in the story on the blackboard.
Have students fingerspell the words and give the ASL equivalents.

Homework:
Encourage students to take the family newspaper and circle all the -ed verbs they find on the first page.

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Day 3

Step 1: Reintroduce the story.
Have the students retell the story in ASL without the overhead.

Step 2: Display the story again on the overhead.
Circle all the irregular verbs.

Step 3: Reiterate the ASL rule.
In ASL, the past time may be expressed with signs such as BEFORE or FINISH.

Step 4: Reiterate the English rule.

Note that some verbs change spellings in the past tense. There is no getting around it – these spellings must be memorized.

Step 5: Write all the irregular verbs on the blackboard and give the ASL equivalent.
Practice fingerspelling the irregular verbs.

Homework:
Have the students take home a list of rules for using the past tense in both English and ASL. Tell them to memorize the rules.

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Day 4

Step 1: Display a copy of the story on the overhead.
Divide the class into two teams: the "ASL Rules" and the "English Rules." Have the teams compete to tell the ASL rules and the English rules for past tense.

Step 2: Review all regular verbs (-ed) and irregular verbs.
Put the words on blackboard and have students copy them in their notebook.

Step 3: Using the overhead story as a model, have students rewrite the story.
Suggest students change Alfredo's name to their own name and his magic mattress to another flying apparatus, i.e., rug, robot, airplane, or helicopter. Have students rewrite the story with these two changes using the same verbs throughout.

Homework:
Have children take home lists of verbs and practice fingerspelling them.

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Day 5

Team activity:
Write on the blackboard the list of -ed verbs and irregular verbs. Divide the students into groups. Have each group write a summary of the story using as many of the verbs as possible. Tell the class that the winning group will be the one that uses the most verbs.

Follow-up activities:

1. Pick a country, city, or state in the story. Using a CD-ROM encyclopedia, investigate, and write a report.
2. Using the Internet, research one of the countries, cities, or states in the story.

Through the above steps, teachers can use ASL to teach English, providing direct instruction in the expression of the past time concept in both languages. Children's learning is most truly measured when they internalize the rules of languages, and use them effectively in their creative writing.

The best way children learn these rules, of course, is through daily storyreading and writing. However, we also believe that children benefit from direct instruction of the rules in both ASL and English, languages that they will use throughout their lives.

Notes

1. Both of our stories incorporate rhyme for use by the speech teacher after the child knows the meanings of the words.
2. ASL glosses are not as effective as having a deaf adult sign the story. ASL glosses can assist teachers in providing ASL translations of English print. Teachers are encouraged to seek out assistance of deaf, native signers.

The Teacher's Reference Shelf

We recommend for the teachers' bookshelf an ASL dictionary, an ASL linguistics text, an English grammar book and a dictionary. Teachers need up-to-date references on English and ASL grammar on hand in the classroom for easy access. Here are our choices.

• Sternberg, M. (1981). American Sign Language: A Comprehensive Dictionary. New York: Harper & Row Publishing Co.
• Glucker, P. (1966). Essential English Grammar. New York: Dover Publications.
• Valli, C. & Lucas, C. (1995). Linguistics of American Sign Language. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
• Random House Webster's College Dictionary. (1995.) New York: Random House.

Examples of verbs in
Alfredo’ Magic Mattress Ride

Regular – show past time by adding -ed.

Irregular – usually show past time by changing the spelling of the present tense forms.

Note: Some irregular English verbs, like put, do not change their spelling in the past tense nor do they add

-ed. They stay the same.

For the correct ASL, refer to a dictionary and confer with a deaf adult. This input assures the correct sign for the word as it appears in the context of the story.

References

Andrews, J. & Franklin, C. (1997). Why hire deaf teachers? Texas Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 22(1), 120-130.

Andrews, J., Ferguson, C., Roberts, S., & Hodges, P. (1997). What's up Billy Jo: Deaf children and bilingual-bicultural instruction in east-central Texas. American Annals of the Deaf, 142 (1), 16-25.

Baker, C. (1996). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.

Bialystok, E. & Hakuta, K. (1994). In other words: The science and psychology of second language acquisition. New York: Harper Collins.

Drasgow, E. (1998). American Sign Language as a pathway to linguistic competence. Exceptional Children, 64 (3), 329-342.

Faltis, C. & Hudelson, S. (1998). Bilingual education in elementary and secondary school communities: Towards understanding and caring. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y. (1994). Between Worlds: Access to second language acquisition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Nover, S. (1997). A conceptual framework for deaf education: Two approaches to English literacy. Star Schools Grant. New Mexico School for the Deaf, Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Strong, M. (1995). A review of bilingual-bicultural programs for deaf children in North America. American Annals of the Deaf, 140(2), 84-94.

Strong, M. & Prinz, P. (1997). A study of the relationship between American Sign Language and English literacy. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11, 452-460.