Deaf ESL Students - Gallaudet University
Deaf ESL Students - Gallaudet University Deaf ESL Students - Gallaudet University
ESL Students Each an Individual By Maribel Garate Most deaf and hard of hearing students—like most hearing American students—have parents who speak English. This gives them a profound and multifaceted advantage in educational programs that are based on English. Exposed to spoken or written English at home, these students see English in their parents’ books and newspapers, often in captions on television, and on their parents’ lips. Deaf and hard of hearing students have also, in varying degrees, been exposed to American Sign Language. They are becoming bilingual users of American Sign Language and English. 4 Spring 2000
My students, who come from families where English is not used in the home, do not have this advantage. Lacking the daily exposure to incidental English that their peers enjoy, these students must struggle harder. They must work to catch up with and then remain abreast of their peers. At the beginning of the school year, I had 15 students learning English as a second language. Aged seven to 15, they came from Asia, Africa, and South America, parts of the world where neither American Sign Language nor English is used. Neither they nor their families read or wrote in English. Quickly, all of them learned their names in signs and learned how to ask basic questions about concrete information—such as the location of the rest rooms. Three could communicate in their home language; none had fluency. The rest had no formal language, but that should not be confused with not having communication skills. My students are good communicators. It is my job to transform these communication skills into a formal sign language and, simultaneously, introduce them to English print. TOP LEFT: The author and her ESL class—“the best students in the school!” Left to right: Daniel Martin, Rosco Brobbey, teacher/author Maribel Garate, Nataly Urrutia, Rumi Akhter, and Edwin Brizuela. These students serve as models throughout this special literacy and ESL issue. CENTER: Daniel Martin. TOP RIGHT: Edwin Brizuela. BOTTOM RIGHT: Blanca Guzman. Spring 2000 My students are individuals, as different from each other as they are from American students. Here are some of them. Daniel Martin is 14 years old and was born in Russia. He was adopted into a deaf family three years ago and entered our school soon after. Daniel is hard of hearing and his loss is progressive. When he arrived, he was able to speak and write in Russian. As a result of this language base, Daniel has been able to learn a great deal of spoken English and to transfer many of his literacy skills into written English as well. He is also a fluent signer thanks to the constant exposure he receives both at home and at school. Cool, hip, and as Americanized as his experiences will allow, he is a fluent speaker of English—and becoming a fluent writer. Edwin Brizuela is an 11-year-old Hispanic boy who has been in our school for three years. He came to the United States to live with his father. Edwin had never been to school in his country. He could approximate a limited number of spoken words in Spanish and he used these few words to make himself understood at home. Three years after his arrival, Edwin is filled with language. He picks up signs and English words with equal facility. He has a keen ability to discern patterns between words and across languages. He loves to compare the three languages he is learning—American Sign Language, English, and Spanish. Blanca Guzman came to our program in the middle of spring semester last year. She was 15 and more anxious 5
- Page 1 and 2: Spring 2000 “The best in the scho
- Page 3 and 4: Contents Volume 1, Issue 2, Spring
- Page 5: Spring 2000 A Letter From the Vice
- Page 9 and 10: By Maribel Garate Spring 2000 Readi
- Page 11 and 12: capital letters and punctuation mar
- Page 13 and 14: Dialogue Journals... For Students,
- Page 15 and 16: Not bad! Although there was still a
- Page 17 and 18: Spring 2000 Research, Reading, and
- Page 19 and 20: ABOVE: ESL students, like all stude
- Page 21 and 22: By Francisca Rangel 19, octubre, 1.
- Page 23 and 24: me. We would leave Texas and head f
- Page 25 and 26: Spring 2000 Writers’ Workshop I-C
- Page 27 and 28: Whatever had happened to his leg mu
- Page 30 and 31: CUT ALONG THE DOTTED LINE Order inf
- Page 32 and 33: Looking Back A Deaf Adult Remembers
- Page 34 and 35: Assessing the ESL Student Clerc Cen
- Page 36 and 37: Students Explore Other Cultures—a
- Page 38 and 39: 5 8 9 6 more difficult than others.
- Page 40 and 41: Letting Calvin and Hobbes Teach Eng
- Page 42 and 43: CALVIN AND HOBBES © WATTERSON. REP
- Page 44 and 45: With Jankowski’s approval, Turk p
- Page 46 and 47: PHOTO: FRANK TURK elevated loft wit
- Page 48 and 49: O News PHOTO: ANGELA FARRAND “We
- Page 50 and 51: O News Clerc Center Celebrates Name
- Page 52 and 53: O Calendar Upcoming Conferences and
- Page 54 and 55: O Reviews Whole Language for Second
<strong>ESL</strong> <strong>Students</strong><br />
Each an Individual<br />
By Maribel Garate<br />
Most deaf and hard of hearing<br />
students—like most hearing<br />
American students—have parents who<br />
speak English. This gives them a profound<br />
and multifaceted advantage in<br />
educational programs that are based<br />
on English. Exposed to spoken or written<br />
English at home, these students<br />
see English in their parents’ books and<br />
newspapers, often in captions on television,<br />
and on their parents’ lips. <strong>Deaf</strong><br />
and hard of hearing students have<br />
also, in varying degrees, been exposed<br />
to American Sign Language. They are<br />
becoming bilingual users of American<br />
Sign Language and English.<br />
4 Spring 2000
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