hearing pedagogy

mysteries

As I struggle to understand John's confusion I have found it necessary to delve into sign language myself, learning little bits of ASL, which have made the moment of communication with John less stressful and more productive. However, even as John has been able to use English articles (the, a, an) with increasing accuracy, I can not imagine how he understands them. I use this example to illustrate my own bafflement with what I can only call ASL phonemes (although they contradict the definition of phonemes as the basic sounds of a language - which is an oversight of linguistic analysis) which are drawn out or shortened in order to produce effects that are often produced in English using adverbs. Perhaps more related to conceptual languages such as Chinese (where concepts and common nouns have their own symbols and more complex ideas and objects are compounded collections of these symbols), ASL requires an attention to layering and subtlety of movement that is invisible in translation into English.

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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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