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English for Deaf Learners
This is a blog for us to share what we know about learning and teaching English.
What do we know about learning and teaching English?
I have heard (in English) and seen (in ASL) more than a few people say, "there is no BEST way to teach English." I'm not the only expert on teaching and learning languages, but I do believe that there are some BEST practices that students, teachers, and language learning experts know about. What is your list of best practices? Here is my list:
1. The best Deaf and Hard of Hearing students of English already have a first langauge--be it spoken English or ASL or another of the world's fine langauges. Signed English or SEE or Simultaneous Communication are not langauges--they are codes--so they don't qualify as first langauges.
2. The best teachers of English are teachers who are fluent, very, very fluent in the language of instruction--in the US, for our Deaf students, that's ASL or spoken English.
3. The best teachers of English know the English langauge inside and out--up and down, from phrases to clauses to combining sentences, analyzing errors, etc.
4. The best teachers know about developmental progress in learning a written langauge--i.e., that all students of English, Deaf or hearing, make similar errors with the English verb system, the article system, interested/interesting, etc.
5. To be continued.
1. The best Deaf and Hard of Hearing students of English already have a first langauge--be it spoken English or ASL or another of the world's fine langauges. Signed English or SEE or Simultaneous Communication are not langauges--they are codes--so they don't qualify as first langauges.
2. The best teachers of English are teachers who are fluent, very, very fluent in the language of instruction--in the US, for our Deaf students, that's ASL or spoken English.
3. The best teachers of English know the English langauge inside and out--up and down, from phrases to clauses to combining sentences, analyzing errors, etc.
4. The best teachers know about developmental progress in learning a written langauge--i.e., that all students of English, Deaf or hearing, make similar errors with the English verb system, the article system, interested/interesting, etc.
5. To be continued.
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Kathy Wood
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About Me
- Dr. Kathy Wood
- I am a hearing Professor in the Department of English at Gallaudet University in Washington DC, USA. I have been studying ASL for about 35 years and have been teaching English for about 30 years! Like all of us academic types, we have several degrees. Mine are: BS in Deaf Education, Ball State University, IN MA in Linguistics: English as a Second Language, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN PhD in Linguistics: Sociolinguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
