Signing Exact English; A Simultaneously Spoken and Signed Communication Option in Deaf Education

2018; 3(2): 18–29 Signing Exact English: A Simultaneously Spoken and Signed Communication Option in Deaf Education Kabian Rendel, MS1 Jill Bargones, PhD1 Britnee Blake, MEd1 Barbara Luetke, PhD1 Deborah S. Stryker, PhD2 2 1 Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Abstract: Current reviews of the literature continue to demonstrate that even with modern assistive listening technology, many children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) have English language and literacy gaps compared to hearing peers (e.g., C. Mayer, 2016; C. Mayer & Trezek, 2018). For example, Geers, Tobey, Moog, and Brenner (2008) reported that “early cochlear implantation had a long-term positive impact on auditory and verbal development, but did not result in age-appropriate reading levels in high school for the majority of students” (p. S21). Given the continually-reported variability of results about language and reading outcomes for children with cochlear implants (e.g., Harris, 2016; C. Mayer & Trezek, 2018), alternative approaches for promoting better language and reading outcomes should be considered. Signing Exact English (S.E.E.), a system designed and demonstrated to encode grammatically-accurate English, is an option to support the development of speech, listening, English language, and literacy. In this article, S.E.E. as it is used in the United States, is contrasted with the many terms that have been used to describe the practice of simultaneously speaking and signing (e.g., total communication, simultaneous communication, sign supported speech, etc.). Research-based responses to common concerns about S.E.E. are provided. Acronyms: ASL = American Sign Language; CALP = cognitive-academic language proficiency; CASE = Conceptually Accurate Signed English; CI = cochlear implant; CS = cued speech; DHH = deaf or hard of hearing; DLC = Developmental Language Curriculum; IEP = individualized education program; LSL = Listening and Spoken Language; MCE = ManuallyCoded English; MSS = Morphemic Sign System; PSE = Pidgin Signed English; NWSDHH = Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children; SC = simultaneous communication; S.E.E. 1 = Seeing Essential English; S.E.E. 2 = Signing Exact English; SE = Signed English; SSE = Sign Supported English; SSS = Sign Supported Speech; TC = total communication; TOD = teacher of the deaf Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Barbara Luetke, Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, 15303 Westminster Way N., Shoreline, WA 98133. Phone: 206-364-4605; Email: b.luetke@ northwestschool.com A Brief History of Total or Simultaneous Communication Marschark, Schick, & Spencer (2006, p. 9) noted there is still a “continuing concern about low levels of literacy and other academic skills attained by most deaf students” as well as “an attempt to teach deaf children the language [English] that would be used in schools.” When David Denton became superintendent of Maryland School for the Deaf in the late 1960s, he promoted sign language and fingerspelling only after instruction in speech and speechreading was tried. He encouraged “speech then sign” as an alternative to an “oral only” instructional method for students who were deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH). Around this same time, the philosophy of simultaneous use of speech and sign was introduced by Roy Holcomb, a deaf man with two deaf sons and a supervisor of a program for deaf students in California. Labeled as Total Communication (TC), it involved a multi-sensory approach that included speech, speechreading, signs, fingerspelling, gesture, and pantomime—all of which could be used by adults and students in educational settings (Beck, 2005). Today, most people do not distinguish between TC as a philosophy or TC as a method of communication. In practice, there is no empirical basis to suggest that TC differs from Simultaneous Communication (SC; SimCom). Both SC and TC are umbrella terms used to generally describe speaking and signing simultaneously. Cued Speech (CS) was proposed in 1966 by Dr. R. Orin Cornett at Gallaudet College to aid speechreading without 18 the use of signs. It is defined by the National Cued Speech Association as “a visual mode of communication that uses handshapes and placements in combination with the mouth movements of speech to make the phonemes of a spoken language look different from each other.” (http:// www.cuedspeech.org/cued-speech-definition). Because CS is based on making phonemes visible and there is little current research on the system available, it is not discussed further in this article. The interested reader is referred to http://www.cuedspeech.org for more information about CS. Also in the late 1960s, at least three systems of English signing were being developed. These included Seeing Essential English (S.E.E. 1), Signing Exact English (S.E.E. 2), and Signed English (SE). Each of these systems are described below. In all three systems, speech was paired with signs, creating bimodal input that transferred English spoken with the mouth to English communicated to some degree by both the mouth and hands. In situations where interpreting is being done, the systems are technically transliterated—changing the English language from one form to another and not from one language to another. Seeing Essential English or S.E.E. 1 was introduced in 1966 by David Anthony (1971), a deaf man who was a teacher of the deaf (TOD). It is referred to today as the Morphemic Sign System (MSS). The system uses separate signs for most syllables of words and is often signed by “root words.” For example, gene is the root for genetic, general, and generous (Gustason, 1997). Today, MSS is used exclusively in Amarillo, Texas, where a dictionary can be found on the school website (http:// aisd-web.amaisd.org/sites/mss/). Luetke-Stahlman and Milburn (1996) reported that students in the Amarillo program scored higher than most other students who were DHH in Texas on state reading tests. Signing Exact English (originally referred to as S.E.E. 2, but known today as S.E.E.) was developed in the late 1960s by Gerilee Gustason, a deaf woman, Esther Zawolkow, the daughter of deaf parents, and Donna Pfetzing, the mother of a deaf child. Both MSS and S.E.E. are signed in a grammaticallyaccurate manner in which users attempt to include every morpheme of what is said (see Figure 1 below). Deciding that S.E.E. 1 and S.E.E. 2 were too complicated for young children, Harry Bornstein and a team at Gallaudet University (e.g., Bornstein and Saulnier, 1984; both hearing) developed Signed English (SE) and published The Comprehensive Signed English Dictionary that is often referred to as “the blue book,” (Bornstein, Saulnier, & Hamilton, 1983). The system included both invented signs and those borrowed from American Sign Language (ASL) as well as 14 affix markers for bound morphemes (e.g., (...truncated)