Unit 5(Chap 6): Based on Cummins’ (1989, 1991) theory of linguistic interdependence, the BiBi programs in deaf education focus on development of a natural sign language, and later, acquisition of a second language through the medium of print. However, empirical evidence supporting or opposing the practice is rare. CAEBER (Center for ASL/English Bilingual Education and Research) is one of the best-known BiBi program in the US. Conduct a mini research on the program and provide your rationale for the reported data showing that the reading comprehension scores on the SAT (9th) for 8- to 18-year-olds in their BiBi program were no higher than those reported by Traxler (2000) for all deaf and hard of hearing children in the SAT (9th) normative sample, although 33% of the students in the CAEBER sample had deaf parents.
I think that this is a very difficult question to answer. I think that there could be many different variables that could affect the test scores for the students.
One question to ask is what is the parents’ mode of communication? Students can only spend so much time at school. If their parents are using ASL at home and the student is only using written English at school this could create a problem. I believe that we need to see if the parents know any written English or if they strictly use ASL all the time. Another thing I believe needs to be looked is there any other languages being used in the home besides ASL and English? What if the student uses ASL at school with his/her friends, English when reading and writing, and then they go home and their parents are speaking Spanish? This seems like it could be very confusing for a child.
Another question to ask is what is the parents’ reading comprehension level? If students are given reading work to take home who are they getting them to help them with it? Their parents. I have noticed at my student teaching placement that a lot of the times students are required to take simple books home and read them aloud with a parent. If the parent only uses ASL to communicate the chances are the student will in turn use ASL to sign the story to his/her parent. Also, if the parent is not reading past a third grade reading level how are they supposed to help the student once the student has made the transition from learning to read to reading to learn?
We also need to look at the teachers who are teaching these students English as a second language. Just because you know English and you can speak it does not mean that you are capable of teaching it. I think to properly teach English as a second language you need training to do so. I know that I would not feel comfortable teaching English as a second language. I would feel the need to go through a lot of training to ensure that I was doing justice for the student.
Ultimately, I understand that the focus of this program is for the student to have acquired a natural sign language first and then acquire English as a secondary language. I just think that there are too many factors to say the program is unsuccessful or successful. I think that you cannot judge the program on a whole basis because each individual student’s life and language is going to be very different.
I agree with you about having too many variables. In my post I talked about how students who are deaf or hard of hearing aren't all the same. We can't base our opinions about the learning of deaf students on one type of test and one type of program. I honestly feel that it all comes down to the effort made at home to help the students to achieve in school and in life.
ReplyDeleteAs my comments on other blogs, there is no right or wrong answer to the question. My intent is to encourage your critical thinking. You have done a good job! While parental involvements and home literacy environments are very important, what can we, teachers of the deaf, do to help these students?
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