hearing pedagogy

asl

American Sign Language (ASL) is John's first language. ASL is the language of greatest comfort for John. But familiarity and comfort in ASL is not a constant across all the deaf and hard of hearing students who entered the University. ASL is not English - it is its own language with its own literary and cultural traditions. It is not clear whether fluent ASL users are better served in basic writing or ESL/ESOL classes, although there are indications of the need for both pedagogical strategies among the deaf students with whom I worked. The University offered the best environment it had available: the basic writing classroom, which I changed into a computer-based ENFI classroom to accommodate one student. The University, both in providing ADA accommodations and me as a representative writing instructor, offered the best it had to offer and yet it was not a sufficient response to these students' needs.

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deaf:audist | hearing pedagogy | enfi | techno-teaching
city on the hill | "othered" outside
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