6 - Language Planning in Deaf Education

Abstract

This chapter discusses the emergence of Signing Exact English (SEE), one of the widely used Manual Codes for representing English (MCEs) to deaf children. This system is known as SEE 2, to distinguish it from another signed code for English, SEE 1 or Seeing Essential English, which also grew out of the original planning effort that Gustason and her colleagues embarked upon. The chapter is not aimed toward an evaluation of the correctness or effectiveness of the structure of SEE 2, or other MCEs, although these are unresolved issues with serious implications. Specifically, there is wide-spread acceptance of these systems despite questions about their effectiveness as models of English and their utility as modes of communication. The goal here is to examine and assess a more fundamental sociolinguistic issue, namely, the place of signed codes for English in the repertoire of the speech community of signers and in the speech community of English speakers. The chapter focuses on several language-planning issues that are pertinent to the special case of deaf education in the United States. Both the rationale of the SEE 2 group for developing the system and the social forces accounting for its ready acceptance and propagation through the vehicle of schools are discussed. Finally, the appeal of SEE 2 to monolingual English speakers and the antagonism that the system has generated within the deaf speech community is considered.