In a different voice: Sign language preservation and America's deaf community

Bilingual Research Journal, Fall 2000 by Burch, Susan

Abstract

Current studies in heritage language learning have explored the linguistic and social-cultural issues of identity. Most scholars, however, overlook an important heritage language group in America: the Deaf community. This work seeks to redress this oversight by examining the ways Deaf people protected their heritage language-- American Sign Language-and their cultural identity during the early twentieth century. This period was especially hostile to the Deaf community, exemplified by increasing application of oralism in schools for the Deaf. Oralism, which teaches lip reading and speech instead of Sign Language, promised to integrate Deaf people into mainstream society. Deaf resistance to oralism took on many forms, including the support of Deaf teachers in schools, as well as Deaf churches, clubs, and Deaf newspapers. Individuals and organizations also exploited new technology in an effort to codify and legitimate their language, producing numerous Sign Language films and dictionaries. While solidifying the broad Deaf community, efforts to appear "normal" to mainstream society ultimately marginalized sub-groups within the community, including women and racial minorities.

Current studies in heritage language learning have explored the linguistic and social-cultural issues of identity. Many of these issues are also addressed in the present study of America's Deaf community, a community which is not usually included in discussions about heritage language learners. Nonetheless, Deaf people have long identified themselves as a linguistic minority rather than a disabled community, a position which found academic support in the work of William Stokoe (1960,1972,1978) in the 1960s and 1970s. Deaf people, however, differ from other heritage language learners in America because they are not immersed in the heritage culture from birth. The vast majority of Deaf people have hearing parents, siblings, and children.

Roots of a Community: Deaf Schools

A distinctly American Deaf community did not emerge until the early to mid-nineteenth century with the founding of permanent residential schools for the Deaf. The first permanent school, established in 1817, was the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut. French Deaf educator and co-founder of ASD Laurent Clerc established a linguistic and pedagogical precedent of Sign Language-based education for Deaf schools in the next five decades. These schools not only provided Deaf people an isolated and supportive environment-a "place of their own"-but also codified a common Sign Language across the nation (see Van Cleve & Crouch, 1989; see also Gannon, 1981). New "places" for Deaf people sprang from the schools, beginning with alumni associations, churches, and Deaf publications. In 1864 Deaf people gained the opportunity for advanced education with the establishment of Gallaudet College, to date the only liberal arts university exclusively for the Deaf. By the mid-1800s, Deaf cultural selfawareness was established and expanding. At this point, educational specialists fortified a campaign to introduce another methodology into the American schools: oralism.

Oralists, the most fervent of whom taught the exclusive use of speech and lip-reading for communication by and among the Deaf, promised to integrate Deaf people into mainstream society. Attempts to implement oralism in Deaf schools began early in America, the first state-sponsored oral school opening the same year as ASD. Horace Mann and other educators, inspired by a tour to German oral schools, argued the superiority of oralism in the 1840s, but failed to overcome the network and influence of signing educators. The appeal of oralism, however, began to eclipse that of manual communication by the end of the century. In part, oralists benefited from an effective and outspoken advocate, Alexander Graham Bell. Substantial financial backing and public support from Bell and other proponents of oralism fueled a rapid propaganda campaign, as well as constant access to influential politicians. Moreover, oralist promises that Deaf children could speak pulled at the heart strings of parents who wanted to hear their children's voices, who wanted their children to be "normal" like them. Medical specialists particularly appreciated the attempts to utilize residual hearing and establish programs to preserve hearing and eradicate (or cure) Deafness. Moreover, oralism appealed to those involved with the growing progressive spirit of the nation in the 1890s- 1900s. Particularly after the recent Civil War and in the midst of a massive influx of immigrants, political and social reformers sought to integrate America's marginalized communities and create cultural cohesion by creating a common spoken language-English. The realization that Deaf people could be educated, as demonstrated by Gallaudet and Clerc's successes, encouraged other educators and interested parties to take the next theoretical step in integrating Deaf people into the mainstream world by teaching them to speak. Thus the first contest for cultural primacy began in the birthplace of Deaf culture: the schools.