Review Unit 9

1. Review Unit 9 • Vocabulary Unit 9 • What are you doing this weekend?  WEEKEND YOU DO-DO • How many bedroom and bathrooms in your house?  YOUR HOUSE BEDROOM RS BATHROOMS HOW MANY

2. ASL vs PSE vs SEE • American Sign Language (ASL) • ASL is used by many deaf in the United States, thus its use promotes assimilation into the Deaf Community. ASL is a visual language, and speech-reading or listening skills are not needed to learn ASL fluently. Because of its visual nature, ASL is very graphic, and understanding of concepts can be promoted more easily. It has developed over time through usage by deaf individuals and is a free-flowing, natural language. ASL is a language complete in itself. It is not usually written or spoken, but can be translated, just like French or German, to English and vice versa. ASL has it’s own syntax and grammar. It does count as a language credit at University level, because it is a separate language. ASL usually follows the TIME + TOPIC + COMMENT structure. • Pidgin Signed English (PSE) or Signed English • PSE is probably the most widely used communication mode in the United States among deaf and hearing persons who work with them. Many teachers use PSE or Signed English. The vocabulary is drawn from ASL but follows English word order. Words that do not carry information (e.g. to, the, am, etc.) are often dropped, as are the word endings of English (e.g. -ed, -s, -ment, etc.). This means that the signer can easily speak while signing, since it is possible to keep pace with spoken English. It is simpler to learn than ASL or SEE, since one does not need to include all English endings, nor does one to master the structure or idioms of ASL. • Signing Exact English (SEE) • SEE is based upon signs drawn from ASL and expanded with words, prefixes, tenses, and endings to give a clear and complete visual presentation of English. The ASL sign for the concept of “pretty, lovely, beauty, beautiful” and other such synonyms is retained for beauty, initialized with P for pretty, L for lovely, and the suffix -ful is added for beautiful. The child thus has an opportunity to develop an expanded vocabulary. The learning of this English based sign system may be more comfortable for English-speaking parents. Maximum use of residual hearing and speech-reading is encouraged since the signs match the elements of spoken English. SEE encourages the incorporation of ASL features to show intonation visually. SEE does require more signing time that PSE, because of the word endings and prefixes, etc. Over-concentration on signing every word may lead to “colorless” signing. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ouO1gkZAiI

3. Concept vs Context • Some concepts share the same sign. Kind of like homophones in English—bear, bare; there, their, and they’re. Ex (thank you/good, SURE/REALLY/TRUE) CLOTHING, DRESS, TO WEAR • Use the context of the sentence to distinguish meanings. • SHIRT, VOLUNTEER

4. Collective ValuesCollectivism vs Individualism • The most dominant cultural pattern in the United States is individualism. Most Americans have been raised to consider themselves as separate individuals who are exclusively responsible for their own lives. Common phrases that reflect this cultural pattern are "Do your own thing," "Look out for number one," and "I did it my way." For example, when Americans introduce themselves, they feel it is important to include their name and occupation, which serve to emphasize their uniqueness. Closely associated with individualism is the importance Americans place on privacy. Americans have "personal space" and "personal thoughts." They find it odd if a person does not value "being alone." • In contrast, one of the most dominant cultural patterns in the Deaf culture is collectivism. Deaf people consider themselves members of a group that includes all Deaf people. They perceive themselves as a close-knit and interconnected group. Deaf people greatly enjoy being in the company of other Deaf people and actively seek ways to do this. When Deaf people first meet, the initial goal is to find out where the other person is from and to identify the Deaf friends they both have in common. • A person's physical appearance is noted and remembered because it is the landscape for all signed communication. Sometimes a person's name may not come up until the end of the conversation. Closely associated with collectivism is the importance of open communication. Having secrets or withholding information work against an interconnected collective. • The behaviors associated with cultural values are deeply rooted. We do not consciously think about the rules involved when making introductions or how to say goodbye when we leave. As children we saw these behaviors repeated often and have long since fully incorporated them into our cultural repertoire. It is only when we are placed in a culture that uses different rules that we realize there is another possible way to accomplish the same task. For example, when a Deaf person leaves a gathering of other Deaf people, the process is quite lengthy. In Deaf culture one approaches each group to say goodbye, which often results in further conversation. The entire process may take more than an hour to accomplish. This behavior may seem unusual; however, if we remember that Deaf culture highly values being interconnected with all of its members, the behavior makes a great deal of sense.

5. Deaf Awareness Poster • You have the rest of the class period to finish the poster.