Deaf ESL Students - Gallaudet University

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
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