hearing pedagogy

tense tension

When trying to explain English verb tense and the use of articles to John, and in John's attempts to explain the Deaf practice of sign nicknames, we encountered with full force the deafened moment. He and I were not simply unable to understand each other. At the moment we faced each other in the deafened moment, we were unable to even set ground rules for beginning understanding. I had no way to begin to understand signed language as language, just as he had no means to understand the complex structure of hearing/listening metaphors that punctuated my pedagogical style. We were unwittingly caught up in hearing culture's erasure of deaf communication. The very linguistic cues I would have relied on to communicate with John were not there for me to call on. We simply had no way to communicate.

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john in context | jenny & sue
deaf:audist | hearing pedagogy | enfi | techno-teaching
city on the hill | "othered" outside
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