Re: That bunch

Tane Akamatsu (takamatsu who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Tue, 12 Sep 1995 11:08:44 -0400 (EDT)

"That bunch" don't inform my work on ASL in a direct way, but do so
indirectly if one considers that most deaf children are born into hearing
families who do not sign. Most = 90%+. Give or take. There are an
increasing number of kids whose parents/families begin to sign shortly
after they discover that their child is deaf, so the "more knowledgeable
others" are not interacting in the same way, linguistically especially,
as they would be if they already knew the language. If one also
considers how much kids pick up incidentally (I speak from experience
with my two-year old in the throes of language acquisition), the amount
of linguistic and cognitive development that can potentially take place,
and what typically takes place with deaf kids is nothing short of terrifying.
(Bakhtin and multi-voicedness)

Deaf kids of Deaf parents are at an advantage over deaf kids of
non-signing (usually hearing) parents because their language interaction
is based on a more competent adult model than newly signing parents. We
are beginning to find, however, that after many years of signing, the
hearing parents do confer certain advantages over the deaf parents
because of stronger links to the English-based school system. This does
not apply across tothe board to ALL deaf parents or ALL hearing parents
(indeed, I think Padden and Humphries are notable exceptions to the deaf
parents group), but I am interested in what kinds of knowledge (ways of
knowing?) Deaf parents can give their Deaf kids that are different from
hearing parents to their deaf kids, and vice versa, particularly when it
comes to learning English in whatever form, especially literacy.

Hope I've made that clear.

I am very familiar with *Deaf in America*, which I have used as required
reading in my courses in the past. Still think it's a great book.

And, I'm very comfortable with being addressed as "Tane".

On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Mike Cole wrote:

>
> Hi Tane Akamatsu-- Fascinating range of interests. How do Vygtosky,
> Bakhtin, and "that bunch" inform you work on ASL? I am particularly
> interested because Carol Padden and Tom Humphries here at UCSD (Do
> you know their book, *Deaf in AMerica*? share some of your theoretical
> interests.
> mike
>
>

Tane Akamatsu
Toronto Board of Education
takamatsu who-is-at oise.on.ca