Students WILLING to study ASL?
Many who support bi-bi education note that hearing students who have naturally acquired and speak fluent English nevertheless spend pretty much every year through high school studying that language (and usually take at least a couple courses in college as well). So shouldn't deaf students study ASL in the same way?
Yet I've known deaf individuals (usually young adults) who say, "I don't need to take an ASL class -- I'm Deaf, a native signer, it's my first language."
This means that in some ways, hearing people who take ASL courses know more about ASL than many deaf "native signers".
As an interpreter for Deaf in college level classes, I do not tutor but interpret for the tutor. Maybe it is my age, but I dont remember much about 'learning' English. Yes I took classes as required, but I could not always tell you why such and such is wrong but this is right, etc.
One English teacher told me this is because my English background and hearing give me the ability to know what is proper English but not why.
ASL students who are surrounded by signing know what is proper, but not always why.
I have found my best teachers of ASL are the college students who socialize with many other Deaf as they are the most fluent.
Re: Students WILLING to study ASL?
No, you didn't 'learn' English -- you acquired it naturally as hearing kids in general do. But you also studied it.
How much of your studying involved grammar depends on your teachers, of course. I remember in elementary school we talked about irregular verbs (the kind that don't follow the -ed rule for past tense, for example). In 9th grade, we focused a LOT on grammar. Throughout my schooling, there were little things interspersed everywhere -- when it's "she and I" and when it's "her and me", etc.
But there's more to studying English than that. There's understanding the difference between formal, casual, technical, etc. forms of language. Plus, being able to speak the language and understand it is completely different from being able to read it and write it -- you learn rules about punctuation, format, capitalization, etc.
Plus... consider hearing kids who acquire more "dialectic" forms of English. While linguistically there's nothing wrong with this, these forms are not necessarily "standard English" that they will encounter in school, need to use on the job, etc. These students especially NEED to LEARN English.
Does this compare to deaf students who haven't had exposure to ASL grammar, but rather more English signing?
Anyway, just as hearing students study English, I feel deaf students should study ASL. This has been illustrated to me as one of my students teases me when my eyebrows are up or down -- he doesn't recognize the grammatical feature I'm using (question asking).
Re: Students WILLING to study ASL?
Yes I agree with you, but when I was in school in the 60's and 70's in Flint, the focus was on creative writing over grammer. My point is hearing has much to do with our acquisition of English, in my opinion.
But absolutely, I feel Deaf students would benefit from continued ASL instruction.
I have to say, to me there are some things needed more, like teachers fluent in ASL and culture.
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