Sign systems in special education: some experiences of their use with deaf children

Lynas, Wendy

doi:10.1177/026565908800400301

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The gestures used in SSE in the UK are the conventionalized signs of British Sign Language (BSL), which are presented alongside spoken English, and they follow English word order rather than the word order of BSL (which has its own grammar independent of that of English). The use of sign‐supported speech has a long history of successful use with children who are deaf, have learning difficulties and/or have severe speech and language difficulties (Grove , Lynas , Udwin and Yule , Wijkamp et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sign‐Supported English: is it effective at teaching vocabulary to young children with English as an Additional Language?

Marshall

Hobsbaum

2015

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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There are alternative explanations for the results. The first is that the use of signs alongside spoken English does not help EAL children of this age to learn words. Alternatively, SSE does have an effect, but we were unable to detect it because (1) teachers in the comparison school used very rich natural gesture and/or (2) teachers in the SSE school did not know enough BSL and this inhibited their use of spontaneous gesture. Explanations (1) and (2) might mean that the potential benefits of spontaneous gesture in the input to the children in the comparison school matched any potential benefits of SSE. We suggest that studying early years professionals' spontaneous use of gesture, and how their gesture supports the language learning of all children in their class, would be fruitful areas of research for the future.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sign‐Supported English: is it effective at teaching vocabulary to young children with English as an Additional Language?

Marshall

Hobsbaum

2015

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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“…Other evidence suggests that normal patterns of stress and rhythm are disrupted (Lynas 1988). In an analysis of speech and sign produced by two experienced teachers of the deaf, Marmor & Pettito (1979) report data showing that, of the teachers' spoken utterances, 21% for one, and 31% for the second, were ungrammatical or grammatically incomplete.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signed English in the classroom, II. Structural and pragmatic aspects of teachers' speech and sign

Wood

Kingsmill

1991

First Language

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In the first paper in this series (S.E.C. I) we investigated the effects of teaching style on pupil participation in discourse in classrooms where Signed English (S.E.) was employed for communication. In the present paper, we analyse the same classroom conversations from a different perspective. We present analyse of aspects of the grammatical complexity and completeness of teacher speech. We find no evidence to suggest that the simultaneous use of sign language disrupts the grammatical well-formedness of teacher utterances but, through comparisons with the speech of teachers in oral classrooms, find that signing appears to reduce the incidence of complex clause structures in teacher communication.As in previous studies, we find that the complexity of teacher speech to deaf children does not vary significantly as a function of child age (or hearing loss or non-verbal IQ). Counter-intuitively, we also find that teachers who use most complex language are faced with children who show least signs of misunderstanding. The educational implications of this finding are discussed in relation to previous studies of hearing and orally educated deaf children. Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analyses are used to explore relationships between teaching style, grammatical complexity and child performance. The implications of the resultant findings for hypotheses about the impact of the use of signs on communication with deaf children are explored. Downloaded from 302 Further use of MLR procedures reveals that the relations between teaching style and child participation are largely independent of the frequency of teacher signing.Aim 2: To assess the impact of teacher signing on classroom discourse The motivation for combining speech and sign in communication is not only to make aspects of English visually more salient but also to ease the process of communication. Some attempts to test this objective, using experimental methodology, have been reported. Typically, these studies compare deaf children's understanding of utterances in speech, speech with sign and written text. Although the many investigations of this type that have been conducted do not present a unanimous conclusion, the most robust generalization to emerge is that speech with sign usually results in greater comprehension than speech alone, but for older children written communication seems to fare even better (Stuckless 1976, Quigley & Paul 1984. In this study we adopt a less controlled, but ecologically more sensitive, approach to this issue by examining the use and effects of Signed English in naturally occurring discourse.Commenting upon some of the problems we found in communication between deaf children and their teachers in oral classrooms, we asked if the use of alternative methods of communication, such as Signed English, might avoid or ameliorate some of these problems (Wood et al. 1986: 194). More specifically, we asked if interactions using alternative modes of communication would, in addition to any effects on the complexity of teacher grammar, be:(a...

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Exploring Sign Use in Two Settings

Grove¹,

McDougall²

1991

British J Special Edu

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Sign systems in special education: some experiences of their use with deaf children

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

Sign‐Supported English: is it effective at teaching vocabulary to young children with English as an Additional Language?

Sign‐Supported English: is it effective at teaching vocabulary to young children with English as an Additional Language?

Signed English in the classroom, II. Structural and pragmatic aspects of teachers' speech and sign

Exploring Sign Use in Two Settings

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