View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UT Digital Repository Praxis: A Writing Center Journal • Vol 15 No 3 (2018) DEAF WRITERS IN THE UNIVERSITY WRITING CENTER Roxanne Zech University of Texas-Austin [email protected] When I first began interning at my University referred to as Deaf culture. Deaf culture formed Writing Center, I was impressed by the careful through centuries of shared life experiences, struggle, consideration given to student with disabilities as well and linguistic marginalization. While many college as English language learners. Accommodations such as campuses accommodate d/Deaf students through quiet rooms and extended time were paired alongside services such as the University of Texas’s Services for physically accessible spaces and consultants trained Students with Disabilities, it is imperative that all extensively in ESL writing pedagodgy. But as I have university institutions and resources provide equal experienced through working with d/Deaf, blind, and access to d/Deaf students. In order to be effective DeafBlind children, no accommodation is one-size- tutors at university writing centers, writing consultants fits-all. must be cognizant of the variance in Deaf writers’ During the end of my time as a Writing educational, linguistic, cultural experience and needs in Consultant, I began to truly understand how writing terms of accessibility. consultants were struggling to serve d/Deaf and hard The history of deaf education is rooted in centuries of hearing students. During one of my own of alternating perceptions about d/Deafness and how consultations, I was working with a woman who d/Deaf students learn. Shadowed by centuries of identified as hard of hearing. She shared that she feared ableism, many fallacious perceptions have prevailed the writing center would be unable to work with a despite scientific and scholastic inquiry into the minds student like her. She had visited the center two times of d/Deaf learners. Up until 1970, the American model before and had unsuccessful, stressful sessions; this of deaf education stood firm in the practices of was her last attempt at seeking writing center services. teaching speech and lip reading to deaf learners. The On a separate occasion, I witnessed a consultation recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) as a true with a Deaf student who utilized interpreting services. language by linguist William Stokoe in 1970 ushered in The student began by sharing with the consultant that a new pedagogy for deaf education: Bilingual Bicultural English was not her first language. Unfamiliar with the Education. Bilingual Bicultural education operates unique grammar of ASL, the consultant responded, under the linguistic interdependence hypothesis, “Oh, what is?” As the consultation continued, the arguing that if a deaf child has a strong language consultant struggled to understand the needs of the foundation in a signed language such as ASL, they “can student as well as howto work with an interpreter. use this language to buttress their learning of the For every unique experience encompassed by the majority language in its written form, without exposure term “disability,” there are equally as many possible to the majority language through speech or a manually accommodations. However, in the case of university coded system” (Mayer 2). However, Connie Mayer, writing centers, some accommodations cannot stand author of “Bilingual-Bicultural Models of Literacy alone and instead must be paired with education and Education for Deaf Students,” argues, “there is no training. At the same time, University Writing Centers evidence of a correlation between oral ability in the fueled by undergraduate consultants face a revolving first language and the subsequent ability to read and door of knowledge and experience, making training write in the second language” (2). If there is no and education a formidable task. Many strategies correlation between a person’s oral ability in a first employed by consultants are learned through language and the ability to read and write in a second experience, but how often does this learning curve language, why would we expect to see a linguistic come at the cost of students with disabilities? transfer between the ability to sign in ASL and read d/Deaf Americans account for two to four of and write in English (2)? every 1,000 births in the nation (roughly 0.38%).1 Of The theory of linguistic interdependence breaks that .38%, a portion of deaf Americans identify as down when faced with the bi-modality of English and culturally Deaf. These culturally Deaf Americans have ASL. Because signed languages such as ASL do not a rich history of linguistic heritage,2 cultural have written forms, Deaf students face barriers when development, and community building, commonly transferring literacy skills from their first language to Praxis: A Writing Center Journal • Vol 15, No 3 (2018) www.praxisuwc.com Deaf Writers in the University Writing Center • 3 the written form of a spoken language. There is no Rebecca Day Babock, the Chair of Literature and one-to-one correspondence between signed language Languages at the University of Texas of the Permian and written text. Instead, native signers “develop the Basin, has done extensive research with regard to cognitive power that supports broad conceptual and disability in writing centers. She pays particular cognitive transfers across language” (Mayer 2). Having attention to d/Deaf and hard of hearing students in a strong foundation in language—spoken or signed— her book, Tell Me How it Reads. Babcock’s studies of enables writers to elaborate and expand on ideas and Deaf students in writing consultations show instances aids students in making successful lexical, of tutors having difficulty understanding deaf students’ morphological and syntactic choices (Mayer 4). attempts to paraphrase written material from However, textbooks, research materials, or the internet. Bi- without full proficiency in a second language, modal bilingualism can present challenges not only in [the constraints of writing] may impose writing production, but also when synthesizing text. psychological limitations on people’s abilities Consequently,“[it] is difficult to paraphrase something to conceptualize their intended meanings and one does not understand” (Babcock 168). When its organization in discourse. (Freedman, tutoring d/Deaf writers, it is crucial that writing Pringle, et al. 10, qtd. in Mayer, “Shaping at consultants recognize the linguistic variations between the Point of Utterance”) ASL and English and do not assume that ASL is a Language and literacy development are independent, visual representation of English. Understanding these not interdependent. As d/Deaf students get older, their linguistic differences will help tutors recognize and writing begins to resemble that of hearing peers who understand recurring local concerns as well as larger are learning English as a second language. However, global issues. audible English immersion is impossible for deaf There are distinct cultural components to consider students, and as a result, “deaf writers face much when working with Deaf writers. For those who are greater difficulties in overcoming English writing culturally Deaf, deafness is more than a medical barriers and meeting American academic standards diagnosis. There is a culture behind Deafness that than their non-native hearing counterparts” (Schmidt encompasses a unique language, social norms, faux pas, 8). and shared history. Deafness is an identity. ASL differs from English in a number of core Understanding Deaf culture can both explain grammatical components. Most obviously, as a visual behavioral norms of Deaf writers and make for a more language, ASL does not have a codified written form. productive consultation. For example, the Deaf While many visual representations of ASL have been community has a cultural emphasis on being direct and attempted, there has yet to be a commonly accepted explicit. For this reason, the Non-Directive, Non- form that is capable of capturing all of the languages’ Evaluative (NDNE) approach may not be appropriate Non-Manual Markers (facial expression, mouthing, when working with Deaf writers (Babcock 180-81). role-shift, eye gaze, etc.) that indicate meaning far NDNE inquiries may leave Deaf clients unsure of how beyond the movement of the hands. For teaching to respond and looking for more pointed questions. By purposes, a tool called ASL Gloss can be used—a way asking direct, wh- questions rather than ones that to visually represent ASL vocabulary through the use require only yes or no answers and by using of English. ASL Gloss is written in all capital letters. imperatives, consultants will generate more discussion Typically, English follows subject-verb-object word within the consultations (Johnson 34). Consultations order. ASL however, utilizes a time-subject-verb-object with Deaf students function very similarly to word order. When constructing a sentence, ASL users ESL/ELL consultations. For many signing Deaf will establish a time frame at the beginning: for students, English is a second language, and “Deaf example, WEEK-PAST MY CAR ME WASH versus tutees, like ESL students, are more likely to ask for its English counterpart, “I washed my car last week.” explanation of points of grammar” (Babcock 91). ASL is also characterized by the use of rhetorical While consultants may feel being more direct is question: for example, MY CAR? WEEK-PAST ME inappropriate given a Writing Center’s NDNE WASH. This variation in sentence structure is doctrine, Deaf writers can greatly benefit from accompanied by an absence of possessive markers, grammar revision. In fact, Nancy Grimm argues that plural markers, articles, to-be verbs, and varied verb refusing editing and proofreading to non-mainstream tenses. Reports indicate that compositions written by students privileges those students who are already d/Deaf children in English tend to be shorter, use members of the dominant discourse and may even more articles and nouns, use fewer adverbs and violate disabled students’ legal rights (Grimm).