CNN Article....

[conuly]

Deaf students struggle with English to get diplomas

Notable quotes:

Deaf students like Lane who have relied their entire lives on the shorthand of sign language to communicate often have a tough time catching on to the subtleties of the written word, which can be as hard to pick up as a second language.

Shorthand of sign language? Hard to pick up as a second language? Dude, it is a second language! Signed languages are separate languages from spoken languages! As for "subtleties of the written word", what they mean is "subtleties of English". There are, apparently, methods for writing in various signed languages.

Sign language is visual, and isn't always translated word for word into English.

Thank you, Captain Obvious! I never knew that sign language is visual!

The Mississippi school is appealing to state officials to allow deaf students to use a thesaurus, an accommodation made for non-English speaking students in the school system, such as Hispanics and Vietnamese.

1. I'm not going to repeat that they are non-English speaking
2. Wait, yes I am.

*grumbles*

The main points of this article (these schools aren't teaching English properly to deaf kids) are right on, but... gah. It offends my linguistic sensibilities.

Comments

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see any of those voice-dependent people get a degree relying on ASL! (I *tried* to take ASL a couple of years ago...only lasted two classes before figuring out that my visual processing is so much slower than that of everybody else that I'd never keep up.)

[conuly]

Considering that you can legally request an interpreter just about anywhere, I don't see the fairness in this at all. At the very least, they should be treated like any other non-native speaker.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

Shorthand?
Shorthand?!?!?!

It's. A. Fucking. Language.
PERIOD! [exclamation point]

Why is that so hard for some to understand?!

[conuly]

Well, considering that this reporter just now figured out that sign language is visual, I'm not too surprised that s/he didn't understand that ASL isn't exactly "shorthand" for any spoken language.

Besides, they probably thought it was an oh-so-cool pun.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see any of those voice-dependent people get a degree relying on ASL! (I *tried* to take ASL a couple of years ago...only lasted two classes before figuring out that my visual processing is so much slower than that of everybody else that I'd never keep up.)

[conuly]

Considering that you can legally request an interpreter just about anywhere, I don't see the fairness in this at all. At the very least, they should be treated like any other non-native speaker.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

Shorthand?
Shorthand?!?!?!

It's. A. Fucking. Language.
PERIOD! [exclamation point]

Why is that so hard for some to understand?!

[conuly]

Well, considering that this reporter just now figured out that sign language is visual, I'm not too surprised that s/he didn't understand that ASL isn't exactly "shorthand" for any spoken language.

Besides, they probably thought it was an oh-so-cool pun.