The event I attended was a one time lecture held at the University of Pennsylvania on October 10 from 5:00-6:30. The lecture was a presentation of the research done by Erin Wilkinson, a Linguistics professor with the University of Manitoba. The research presented specifically focused on how lexical information (concepts) are processed in the minds of Deaf adults and children as compared to their hearing counterparts. Information about this event was presented on the syllabus of this course. Additionally, the Talking Hands club sent out a flyer on the event through Owl Connect. I chose to go to this event because I am very interested in studying linguistics. Having taken and precepted for several linguistics classes within this department I
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Additionally, I know that other Deaf educators were there as I saw Professor Hartmann at the event. Beyond myself and the three classmates I attended the event with I am unsure of exactly how many of the attendees were hearing or Deaf. During the lecture hearing interpreters were used. During the Q&A portion of the event, all of the questions were posed using ASL. It was clear that there were signers of varying competencies present at the event. Through what I saw, the event portrayed Deaf culture in a mostly positive light. The lecture, for me, had a very clear message that ASL as a central facet of Deaf culture deserves the level of attention and research interest as has been given to spoken languages. The presenter, also spoke positively of Deaf culture in that she stressed the importance of Deaf education and ASL education. In her research, many of the deaf children who entered into the experiment had to be excluded later on because they were lacking in ASL proficiencies. As a result of this finding, it was said that, while there seemed to be an inadequacy in the education of Deaf students overall, this was not due to a lack of great Deaf educators but rather that it is still the case that many children are not able to receive an education at a deaf school. This demonstrated to me how much Deaf culture values education in an ASL …show more content…
Furthermore, through the results of the studies presented, I learned that the processing of lexical concepts changes as an individual increases in the signing abilities. Furthermore, I learned that ASL is not uniformly taught to Deaf children. There is a deficit in the number of children receiving adequate instruction in the language and this needs to be addressed by the Deaf education system. Beyond the research itself, I learned how much of a hinderance the design of a room can be. The lecture hall in which we were seated had large columns that obstructed the view of most of the individuals in the back half of the hall. I tried to sit in a location where this would not be an issue. However, seating was limited by the time I arrived and I was forced to sit in spot where half of the podium was blocked by the structure. If I attended a similar event again, I would arrive early to avoid this potential problem. Overall, the event demonstrated to me that there are additional topics (linguistics) that come into studying ASL. As an ASL student, I appreciate learning that as I increase in my abilities there would be opportunities for me to further my studies by taking part in research similar to what was presented in the
Additionally, I know that other Deaf educators were there as I saw Professor Hartmann at the event. Beyond myself and the three classmates I attended the event with I am unsure of exactly how many of the attendees were hearing or Deaf. During the lecture hearing interpreters were used. During the Q&A portion of the event, all of the questions were posed using ASL. It was clear that there were signers of varying competencies present at the event. Through what I saw, the event portrayed Deaf culture in a mostly positive light. The lecture, for me, had a very clear message that ASL as a central facet of Deaf culture deserves the level of attention and research interest as has been given to spoken languages. The presenter, also spoke positively of Deaf culture in that she stressed the importance of Deaf education and ASL education. In her research, many of the deaf children who entered into the experiment had to be excluded later on because they were lacking in ASL proficiencies. As a result of this finding, it was said that, while there seemed to be an inadequacy in the education of Deaf students overall, this was not due to a lack of great Deaf educators but rather that it is still the case that many children are not able to receive an education at a deaf school. This demonstrated to me how much Deaf culture values education in an ASL …show more content…
Furthermore, through the results of the studies presented, I learned that the processing of lexical concepts changes as an individual increases in the signing abilities. Furthermore, I learned that ASL is not uniformly taught to Deaf children. There is a deficit in the number of children receiving adequate instruction in the language and this needs to be addressed by the Deaf education system. Beyond the research itself, I learned how much of a hinderance the design of a room can be. The lecture hall in which we were seated had large columns that obstructed the view of most of the individuals in the back half of the hall. I tried to sit in a location where this would not be an issue. However, seating was limited by the time I arrived and I was forced to sit in spot where half of the podium was blocked by the structure. If I attended a similar event again, I would arrive early to avoid this potential problem. Overall, the event demonstrated to me that there are additional topics (linguistics) that come into studying ASL. As an ASL student, I appreciate learning that as I increase in my abilities there would be opportunities for me to further my studies by taking part in research similar to what was presented in the