Bilingualism and Deafness: On Language Contact in the Bilingual Acquisition of Sign Language and Written Language

523 Pages·2016·3.36 MB·English

by  Carolina Plaza-Pust

Carolina Plaza-Pust
Bilingualism and Deafness
Sign Languages
and Deaf Communities
Editors
Annika Herrmann, Markus Steinbach, Ulrike Zeshan
Editorial board
Carlo Geraci, Rachel McKee, Victoria Nyst,
Sibaji Panda, Marianne Rossi Stumpf,
Felix Sze, Sandra Wood
Volume 7
Carolina Plaza-Pust
Bilingualism
and Deafness
On Language Contact in the Bilingual Acquisition
of Sign Language and Written Language
ISHARA PRESS
ISBN 978-1-5015-1396-1
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-0499-0
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0493-8
ISSN 2192-516X
e-ISSN 2192-5178
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin and Ishara Press, Preston, UK
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
For my family and friends

Acknowledgements
After all, we are all of us explorers, and we all have much to bring to each other from our own
journeyings. (Ladd 2003: 20)
With the present volume I wish to share not only the knowledge gained about
bilingualism and deafness throughout the last years but also the enthusiasm that
has guided me all along since I began to work on this project. When I engaged in
the endeavour I did not know with precision the details of the journey that lay
ahead. Yet I took up the challenge with curiosity and determination. As it turned
out, sign bilingualism revealed itself as an intriguing and enriching object of sci-
entific enquiry. Not only does it confront us with a myriad of interrogations, it also
compels us to extend our knowledge in multiple areas.
From the beginning, this work has been inspired by a dialogue not only with
scholars and professionals, but with all sorts of people who expressed their inter-
est in sharing their questions, ideas and experiences.
I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all those who so generously contrib-
uted, in one way or another, to this work over the last years. As a hearing multi-
lingual who is not a member of the deaf community I would like to express my
gratitude first and foremost to all deaf people, children and adults, whom I have
met over the last years. Thank you for sharing your views and experiences, and
for expressing your enthusiasm about this project, which has provided additional
motivation for its completion. In particular, I wish to thank Knut Weinmeister.
Knut and I worked together on several different phases of the longitudinal inves-
tigation. Without his efforts, the realisation of the part of the study dedicated to
the acquisition of German Sign Language (DGS) would not have been possible.
Very special thanks to Helen Leuninger for her guidance throughout my aca-
demic life, and the confidence she has placed in me. Her profound knowledge of
sign language linguistics (and many other intricate areas of psycholinguistics)
as well as her commitment to the recognition of sign language and their users in
Germany have been a constant source of inspiration. I am grateful for her encour-
agement from the beginning to conduct a study on sign bilingualism, and for her
thoughtful feedback to previous versions of the present manuscript.
I am indebted to many people for their support and cooperation throughout
the years dedicated to the present work. In particular, I would like to thank Klaus-
B. Günther for making it possible for me to conduct a longitudinal study with
deaf students attending the bilingual programme established at the Ernst-Ado-
lf-Eschke school in Berlin. The opportunity to carry out this research came at a
time when I realised that the methods controversy consisted not only in a debate
over different educational philosophies but that it had also created a climate of
viii   Acknowledgements
suspicion about scientifically based research into deaf students’ linguistic skills.
Thank you also for the thoughtful and thorough feedback to an earlier version of
the present work.
I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the collaboration with the members of
the research team concomitant to the bilingual education programme over the
years, their readiness to share materials, time for discussions, providing support
wherever and whenever needed. Special thanks for all of this to Beate Kraus-
mann, Claudia Wilsdorf, Johannes Hennies, and, again, to Knut Weinmeister.
I also extent my gratitude to the headmasters, Ulrich Möbius and Veronika
Fuchsmann, who allowed research to be conducted in their school. My sincere
thanks to the students for their participation in this study, for their readiness to
produce signed and written narratives, even though they were faced with the task
of recounting the same picture story time and again.
I am also grateful to all participants in the survey on the status of deaf educa-
tion in Europe, to the participants in the interviews I have conducted over the last
years at various educational institutions in several countries, and to headmasters
and teachers who have facilitated my sitting in several bilingual classes so that I
could get a glimpse of actual teaching practices. To undertake a longitudinal study
in the distance (Berlin) would not have been possible without the aid of good com-
panions on the spot. Hence, I extend un grand merci to Marie-Caroline and Joerg
for the provision of the logistics, and their unparalleled hospitality and friendship.
The sign language research community is a small community compared to the
communities of researchers dedicated to the investigation of other topics. Since
I engaged in the journey of investigating sign bilingualism I have come across
many colleagues who helped to sharpen my own views about sign bilingualism
and deaf education. For stimulating discussions over the many years dedicated to
this work I wish to particularly express my gratitude to Agnès Millet, Anne Baker,
Anne-Marie Parisot, Annette Hohenberger, Astrid Vercaingne-Ménard, Bencie
Woll, Beppie van de Bogaerde, Brigitte Garcia, Daniel Daigle, Esperanza Morales-
López, Eva Waleschkowski, Mar Pérez Martín, María Massone, Marie-Anne Sal-
landre, Marie-Thérèse L’Huillier, Merle Mahon, Mieke van Herreweghe, Victòria
Gras, and Wolfgang Mann. In particular, I would like to thank Esperanza for her
confidence in many common projects and for her enthusiasm in envisaging new
projects to come.
Special thanks to the editors of the Sign Language and Deaf Communities
series, Markus Steinbach and Annika Herrmann, for guiding me with patience
and support through the publication process.
I am indebted to my friends and to my family for always being there. Thank
you for your continued patience and caring love. Thank you also for your support
and motivation to bring this work to a good close. To you I dedicate this work.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements   vii
List of figures   xvii
List of tables   xix
Notation conventions for sign language examples   xxii
List of acronyms for sign languages   xxiv
1. The path toward sign bilingualism: a cross-disciplinary
perspective   1
1.1. (Sign) Bilingualism as an object of scientific enquiry   1
1.1.1. Narrowing the focus on sign bilingualism   2
1.1.2. Outline of the work  5
1.2. Sign bilingualism: sociolinguistic aspects   6
1.2.1. Bilingualism as a societal phenomenon   7
1.2.1.1. Types of multilingualism   7
1.2.1.2. The status of languages in a situation of
contact   8
1.2.1.3. The notion of community: language and group
identity   9
1.2.1.4. Language planning: models and measures   11
1.2.2. Sign language on the agenda   13
1.2.2.1. The development of the deaf community   14
1.2.2.2. Sign language transmission   16
1.2.2.3. Demography   18
1.2.2.4. Deaf activism   21
1.2.2.5. Deaf movement   22
1.2.2.6. Empowerment   23
1.2.2.7. Deafhood   25
1.2.3. Sign language planning   25
1.3. Sign bilingualism and deaf education   31
1.3.1. Aims and types of bilingual education   31
1.3.1.1. Bilingual education programmes: Variables   33
1.3.1.2. Bilingual education and academic
achievements   35