Deaf ESL Students - Gallaudet University

Not bad! Although there was still a
long way to go, Claudette had
improved. Today she is taking courses
at a university and still working to
improve her English. When I think
back to meeting her so long ago, I realize
that writing in a dialogue journal
was one of the effective strategies we
used for helping her to develop as
a writer.
* Claudette is a pseudonym used by
request.
For Host Parents and Son
At MSSD, students who arrive with
knowledge of a language other than
English are encouraged to maintain
and develop it. While we work in
school on developing their English
and American Sign Language, we also
encourage parents to work along with
us at home by writing to their children
in the family’s native language. Not
only does maintaining and using
another language make learning
English easier, it is also a way to insure
that children are able to communicate
with their families and be part of the
heritage that is theirs by birthright.
Franklin was a high school student
from Peru. His host family in the
United States included a Latino father
and an Anglo mother, both of whom
were educators and both of whom
were deaf. Franklin and his host family
kept a home dialogue journal together.
Franklin used his journal to write back
and forth to both of his host parents
using English and Spanish.
By using dialogue journals at home,
these parents worked in partnership
with MSSD to maintain the foundation
of Franklin’s Spanish and to use it as a
springboard to English and American
Sign Language.
At right is a glimpse of their
conversation. A translation follows on
the next page.
Spring 2000
Pages From Franklin’s Journal
13