Abstract
A truly bilingual and bicultural education for deaf children requires them to learn about the deaf art-form of sign language poetry. In this article I outline the advantages and challenges of doing this. Reviewing the scarce literature on teaching deaf children signed poetry, whether translated or original, I relate it to the use of literature in L2-learning settings. Reflections of deaf teacher-poets from the UK show that deaf children readily relate to signed poetry, and with informed language focus from teachers it helps them to develop a range of language skills, and express their emotions. Barriers to this, however, include lack of training and awareness for both deaf and hearing teachers - even when the teachers are poets.
Highlights
Sign language has been increasingly accepted as an L1 medium of instruction for deaf children, beginning in the 1970s, and strengthening especially from the 1990s following Johnson, Liddell & Erting’s seminal work ‘Unlocking the curriculum’ in 1989
Sign language is widely taught as an L2 subject to adults and they, too, can benefit from the exposure to signed poetry, but this will not be explored further here
Reported research frequently focuses on the measurable language outcomes of bilingual education, but language learning is more than acquiring competence in the L1 or L2
Summary
Sign language has been increasingly accepted as an L1 medium of instruction for deaf children, beginning in the 1970s, and strengthening especially from the 1990s following Johnson, Liddell & Erting’s seminal work ‘Unlocking the curriculum’ in 1989. Lange et al (2013) review evidence of cognitive advantages of sign language-spoken language bilingual education and its benefits for deaf children’s reading skills. I will ask here how one aspect of teaching in a bilingual environment – using signed poetry – can impact on teachers, learners and their learning experience. [...] bilingual education should only be the starting point of Deaf education, since it is the beginning of policies about Deaf identity, Deaf and hearing knowledge and power, Deaf resistance movements, ideologies, hegemonic discourses, school roles and public policies The observations and proposals I put forward here draw on work by practitioners and academics (following PARAN, 2008, in his comprehensive review of the effectiveness of literature in foreign language teaching and learning). Rosa and Klein (2011) have reported on ground-breaking work asking deaf teachers for their opinions on the signed literature available for deaf children in Brazil, focusing on the language used, the technical and performance elements of the pieces and the aspects of culture portrayed. I will continue with this approach, considering reflections by deaf poets and teachers on the use of signed poetry for teaching
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