Oral Language Diversity

Great Essays
Introduction

Language can be seen and heard; it can be diverse or standard. What does this mean? To average norm students, this describes the ability of communication. Too hard of hearing and deaf children language takes on a whole new role, influencing their personal, social and academic development as well as life experiences. Whether a student is hard of hearing or deaf gaining, learning and communicating through language, both oral and visual, entails an entirely different experience than that of a hearing child. Children identifying with hearing impediments often relate to two different languages, one visual and one oral and written language. For example, in Australia, the visual language, sing language, is known as Auslan, with the oral
…show more content…
Deaf citizens reside in cities all around the world, the majority of those countries individually have their own traditional mother tongue language or languages. D’Alessio (2015) suggests just like oral languages, sign language itself is not restricted to one particular language. Sign language officially dates back to the 1600 and as a collective has around 130 different variations which split into several families. For example, Australian sign language is related to the British and New Zealand sign language which all collectively descend from the same parent language and are all a part of the BANZSL language (Start ASL, 2016). Although collectively all sign languages are different, there is a communal phenomenon around deaf culture. When society thinks about culture, it is often described by one’s clothing, food, celebrations and language (The deaf society, 2016). The deaf society (2016) explains that language and culture are the roots that intertwine to define human identity, to affirm one’s existence. This quote literally emphasises the importance of language and its impact on life to the deaf community. The deaf community worldwide, a unique community, affirm with their uniqueness, not relating deafness as a disability at all. Instead, the deaf community sees deafness as a cultural and linguistic identity and not a communication barrier (National disability services, 2016). Sign language diversity and deaf culture distinguish the deaf community and their use of sign language in a way that excels beyond oral language. The appreciation for both oral and visual communication among the deaf community bring a profound realisation on the importance of all forms of

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    After discussing the outsider view of the Deaf community, Holcomb divulges into labels used by members of the Deaf community to describe their peers. Terms like balanced bicultural Deaf people and culturally separate Deaf people help classify the environment a deaf person feels most comfortable in and the method of communication they chose to use. After defining those labels, he discusses the stages of cultural awareness Deaf individuals go through when settling into the community and their sense of self. In the last chapter focused specifically on the culture of American Deaf people, the author notes several influential…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I notice the Deaf people followed facial grammar for every sentence they constructed. They raised or lowered their eyebrows and made a different facial expression for different words. That is something I am currently learning and defiantly need to improve on. I also noticed that Deaf people often move their mouths while signing. The majority of the Deaf people who were demonstrated in the film would move their mouths while signing.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Diversity In Language

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Writing in speaking has become a prefer manner know to be a privilege. There has been many different styles of writing and language. However, the social justice established and dictated the styles of writing that are supposed to be used. On the other hand, social justice limits the writing styles for dominate cultures. These two author Richard Lederer and Susan Naomi Bernstein presented a lot of facts and details about the way that social justice privilege the writing styles and language presented.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    ASL vs. SEE Research paper In the past fifty years there has been many advances, changes and controversy over the American Deaf community’s language, American Sign Language, and the new system of visual English, Signed Exact English. American Sign Language (ASL) is a complete, distinct language with its own vocabulary and grammar that developed almost two hundred years ago. Signed Exact English (SEE) is a recently new communication system of English through a combination of ASL signs, modified ASL signs, and unique English signs. American Sign Language is a preferred system of communication over Signed Exact English because of its difference in historical background, linguistics, uses in the world, and recent technology.…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “In deaf culture, deafness is just viewed as a cultural market and something that simply makes you different.” Providing a preview of what future events hosted by ASL Club will look like, the organizers spent some time discussing pressing issues in the deaf community such as the ongoing debate of whether or not to teach deaf children sign language. Parents are apprehensive about teaching their children sign language, in fear that they will never learn to speak orally. Others encourage children to learn the language so that they can communicate easily with people in the deaf community. “It’s debated about what is better for deaf children because some people think it’s better to just integrate them into hearing schools where they may not have that much access to their own language but if you’re more used to being around hearing people, you’ll get better at lip reading,” explained Abrams.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    New York, NY: New York University Press. Retrieved from https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B007KGGLQO Emond, A., Ridd, M., Sutherland, H., Allsop, L., Alexander, A., & Kyle, J. (2015). The current health of the signing deaf community in the UK compared with the general population: A cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 5(1), e006668-e006668. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006668 Fellinger, J., Holzinger, D., & Pollard, R. (2012).…

    • 3187 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A common language is generally accepted as necessary to share these aspects of the culture. The Deaf culture is a group of individuals, generally born-deaf, and who communicate with American Sign Language (ASL).” (Hladek) Our Deaf culture is a community filled with rich history that we cherish. We regard our culture and language, American Sign Language, to be of the norm rather than see ourselves being labeled “disabled.”…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In mainstream society, we, as hearing people, tend to consider deafness as a defect. We tend to look at them with a feeling of pity. If they success in the hearing world, we will applaud them for overcoming a severe deficiency. We tend to consider signing as an inferior replacement for “real” language such as English or Spanish. We believe that all Deaf people will try to lip-read when communicating with hearing people as the only way to interact.…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    It covers a wide range of questions such as wondering the causes of Deafness to their opinion on hearing people learning American Sign Language. The authors are Deaf and they provide an answer to all of the questions asked even if they seem unreasonable. The variety of questions gives evidence to the oppression and obliviousness of the general public with all of the misinformation assumed by them. Alan, Ron. “Deaf Child 's Sign Language Name Looks Too Much like Gun, Parent Says School Told Him.”…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cuban Regime

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Since I began learning American Sign Language, I saw the abuse Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community faced in our hearing world. Language deprivation of children, separation of families, sexual abuse, immense self-consciousness, and social isolation are just some of the burdens my Deaf friends have encountered, all just for being Deaf. Just like the Cuban people, my family included, traveling in groups and agglomerating in similar areas (Hialeah, Little Havana, etc.) so do those with a Deaf identity (Gallaudet University, St. Augustine, FL, Deaf Club, etc.) I have become active in this community and will…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the many aspect of American Sign Language that I observed while attending the silent dinner that was new to me was how confusing Sign Language can be outside of the classroom as well as how different a Deaf event is compared to the hearing events that I am used to. At a typical hearing dinner, you tend to talk to the person sitting next to you at the table the most, but at the silent dinner, most people were talking to others that were seated across the room. One of the cultural aspect of the Deaf community that stood out to me the most at the silent dinner, was how different the Deaf culture is from the hearing community in large groups or at large events. In the Deaf culture when you have an event like we did at the silent dinner, the seating has to be adjusted to allow for signing conversations and maximum visibility. I also learned from attending this silent dinner, was that the open seating used in the Deaf community allowed for people to carry on conversations with others in sign language while still being able see the other signers in your group.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    De Via Analysis

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A unique, vibrant, and eloquent minority genre of art arising from Deaf culture was given international attention. These are “Deaf View/Image Art, or De'VIA”(Source A). This art uses formal art elements with the intention of expressing innate cultural or physical Deaf experiences (Source A). Deaf Art communicates more than the sensory experience of silence. Many artists include ideas such as the beauty of sign language, oral training, frustrations in communicating, painful oppression, cultural pride, breakdown of family life when hearing parents cannot communicate, joys of Deaf bonding and heritage, residential school life, technology used within the Deaf community (TTY, closed captioning, etc.) and turning points in the artist's acculturation to Deaf culture, such as the discovery of language, turning points in the history of Deaf people and the 1880 Milan Congress prohibiting signed languages in Europe and America (Source D).…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    For the Deaf community, networking and communication is extremely important for their culture and the individuals within the community. An article titled “Deaf Culture & Community”, written by Dr. Beth Sonnenstrahl Benedict of Gallaudet University, explains exactly why networking is so essential to Deaf culture. Dr. Benedict explains how in most cultures children are born within their cultural group and are able to gain direct access to their cultural norms, values, and traditions from their families. However, most deaf children are born into hearing families, and they cannot gain knowledge about Deaf culture from their family. Because of this unique obstacle, Deaf children must gain cultural knowledge and access to the Deaf community through…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life Without Words Essay

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The community in which deaf individuals are raised in effect how they not only communicate but also their self-image and willingness to become active members of their community. How a community interacts and accepts the deaf individual has a huge impact on their outlook on life. In Cece Bell's’ novel El Deafo, the protagonist Cece’s outlook on life changes throughout the novel as different people interact with her and learn about her deafness, while in the documentary Life Without Words the community in which Maria, the protagonist, lives in affects her in a different way. Her community does not quite accept and provide the same benefits as Cece’s and therefore affects her communication and her way of life. As the story begins Cece is…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Basically, There four three main problem with Maria summarized by Mr. Bennett. Did not be school on time, might cause by flexible school time before; not able to complete reading assignment (poor reading skills), might cause by different language use; trouble with all subject (poor academic skills), might cause by different course schedule; and unable to contact with parents (never responds), might cause by language or not familiar with different types of electrical products. How does linguistic diversity influence classroom performance? Linguistic might cause unskilled language in different ways like reading writing and speaking.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays