Research at Gallaudet Spring 2005.Indd

R E S E A R C H A T G A L L A U D E T A Publication of the Gallaudet Research Institute at Gallaudet University Spring 2005 Gesture as a Mediating Factor in Speech Kozol Presentation Combines Wit, and Sign Language Storytelling Wisdom, Outrage, and Compassion** By: Talibah E. Buchanan* By Robert C. Johnson here are many hearing individuals who do not onathan Kozol, author of such Tknow sign language but move their hands when Jbooks as Death at an Early Age speaking. Chances are these people would have a hard and Savage Inequalities, gave a time telling the same story if asked not to use their hands. presentation at Gallaudet on March Additionally, the story told without the assistance of 30 called “Shame of the Nation: Re- gesture would likely seem lackluster by comparison. The segregation, Inequality, and Over- question becomes, to what degree is gesture an integral Testing in Public Education.” The part of effective storytelling and how much does it add talk was sponsored by the Gallaudet to the complexity and richness of a story? How does Research Institute as part of its Jonathan Kozol the gesture used in oral storytelling compare to that Schaefer Distinguished Lecture Series. used in American Sign Language (ASL) storytelling? If In addition to the presentation, Kozol participated in gesture is taken into consideration, will the complexity of several other sessions with Gallaudet faculty and students information conveyed be equivalent between languages? in which he reported learning a great deal about deaf These are questions that Drs. Sarah Taub, Dennis Galvan, students and their educational needs. He said he was and Pilar Piñar sought to answer in their recent study particularly intrigued to learn from Gallaudet Department on the contribution of hand and body movements to the of Education faculty and students—deaf and hearing— complexity and depth of ASL, English, and Spanish that the statement “separate is never equal” does not storytelling (Taub, Galvan, & Piñar, 2004). necessarily apply to deaf students, many of whom thrive in education programs outside the mainstream. Kozol said his focus has not been on separate programs that are well designed and effectively meeting students’ needs. His concern is that current governmental and socioeconomic factors in America are depriving many students of quality educational experiences because of “racial apartheid” which is forcing too many minority children to stay Dennis Galvan Pilar Piñar Sarah Taub in inferior learning environments. During a question Psychology Foreign Languages Linguistics and answer session with Kozol, Dr. Barbara Gerner de Garcia, a faculty member in Gallaudet’s Department Forming Questions of Educational Foundations and Research, pointed out The inspiration to explore the above questions that many of Kozol’s concerns do indeed apply to deaf grew from the findings of Galvan and Taub’s previous children. Over forty percent of deaf children are from study (2004) in which they compared narratives by minority populations, Gerner de Garcia said, and many of native ASL and English users. Results from this study these are living in disadvantaged communities. indicated that when compared with English users, ASL When one audience member asked Kozol what effect signers consistently incorporated much more conceptual his books have had on U.S. educational policy, he said Continued on Page 3 Continued on Page 2 * Talibah E. Buchanan, a fifth year doctoral student in the Clinical ** An abbreviated version of this article appeared in the April, 15 issue Psychology program, is the 2004-2005 Walter G. Ross Graduate Fellow. of On the Green, a Gallaudet publication. She can be contacted at [email protected] 2 Research at Gallaudet Spring 2005 Kozol Presentation, Continued from page 1 The inspiration that sparked his entire professional and “None. Many people, including teachers, parents, and civil writing career came in 1964 when three college students rights groups have gotten insight and comfort from my who went to Mississippi to create summer schools for books, which for me is justification enough for continuing black children were murdered by policemen who were also to write them. But the powers that be are generally members of the Ku Klux Klan. Kozol and millions of like- indifferent or dismissive.” minded Americans were outraged, but Kozol took action, That statement and the title of his presentation clearly driving his VW bug from Harvard Square to an African suggest that Kozol is not impressed by such efforts of Methodist Episcopal Church in a different neighborhood Congress and the president as the No Child Left Behind to ask the minister what he could do to help disadvantaged Act of 2001. To indicate why he is cynical about current children. It was that short drive over a great divide that led educational policy, Kozol points to recent cuts in such to Kozol’s career as a fourth grade teacher of black and programs as Head Start which he believes were beginning Hispanic children in the inner cities of Boston and, later, to close the education gap many years ago. Now, he the South Bronx and his many books on the experience of said, children brought up in impoverished homes and educating this neglected population. communities are in fact left very much behind during their Kozol said that children growing up in places like the preschool years while wealthier children often have rich South Bronx are far less likely than children in wealthier (and expensive) learning experiences. Once poor black or areas to receive early medical and dental care or vision Hispanic children reach the third grade, they now begin testing or to arrive at school well-fed and ready to learn. to be “bludgeoned” by batteries of tests and rote-learning Children in his classes have often suffered traumas such when what is needed is a helping hand earlier on: the kind as witnessing homicides. One-fourth of the students in of enriched learning that government for a while was fairly the South Bronx see their fathers only in prison--if at all. generously funding. “It’s outrageous,” Kozol said, “to Many poor inner city children don’t even go to school. demand that kids be accountable for passing tests if they Increasingly, children who can’t pass tests are held back in are deprived of childhood educational experiences.” school and eventually drop out. In the South Bronx, 99.8 percent of the children in elementary schools are not white, the victims of what Kozol calls “economic apartheid,” a segregation forced upon them by the price of housing. The educational effects of economic segregation have been reinforced since the Reagan administration, Kozol said, by an emphasis on allowing children to attend their local schools, in effect stopping the process of desegregation. Compounding the disincentives these children feel toward going to school, the current mania for testing, Kozol said, is “eliminating all whim and joy and mischief from education. Testing has doubled since Bush became president. Principals, terrified of losing their jobs, are Amy DiGaudio (left ) and Heidi Holmes (right), first year doctoral forced to become tyrants. Teachers have scripted lesson students in Gallaudet's Department of Education, talk with Kozol. plans and are forced to teach books of little literary value.” Kozol said that Fred Rogers of “Mr. Rogers’ Much of what Kozol had to say was framed by the no- Neighborhood,” moved by one of his books, asked if holds-barred political analysis described above, but those he could visit the children in his class, though he was who attended seemed equally if not more impressed by the concerned the children might find him “intimidating.” vivid details Kozol used to make his points and by Kozol’s Kozol and Rogers went together by subway to the church poignant autobiographical narrative. As a Rhodes Scholar attended by many of his students, whereupon a six-year- in love with English literature, Kozol was surprised to old boy ran to and hugged the surprise guest, saying, discover that he disliked the elitist environment at Oxford. “Welcome to MY neighborhood, Mr. Rogers!” Kozol said He moved to France, where he was inspired to write by he hasn’t taken down the sticky note on his wall with Mr. such authors as Richard Wright, William Styron, and Rogers’ phone number on it. “I like to think I could call James Baldwin, then he returned to Harvard Square to him if necessary,” he said, with a rueful smile. await inspiration. Spring 2005 Research at Gallaudet 3 Gesture as a Mediator, Continued from page 1 information, the languages approached a significant information into their descriptions of motion events. A difference in the extent to which they encode specifics of motion event was defined as an event where an entity spatial relations. ASL users gave more specific accounts of moves from place to place, or is identified as being located the spatial relations in the scene. ASL users also included at a specific place. information related to internal affective states, specifically For the purpose of their study, Galvan and Taub used mentioned instances of motion, specified the path of a scene from the children’s storybook, Frog, Where Are figures, and detailed the manner of motion significantly You? (Mayer, 1969) as a prompt for both ASL and English more often than English users. motion narratives. They then compared video clips of In a second analysis Galvan and Taub looked at the native ASL users and written transcripts of native English frequency of encoding each piece of information. This users retelling the story. Using this data, three distinct information was conceptualized as the “reinforced” but related analyses were performed. In their first area of information because the repetition served to reinforce the concentration, Galvan and Taub compared the amount of viewer’s mental imagery and assist with comprehension conceptual information specified by each of the narrators.

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