Title: Have You Ever Seen…? An American Sign Language (ASL) Handshape DVD/Book.
Authors: Adonia K. Smith and E. Lynn Jacobowitz
Illustrator: Tamara Davidson
Video Direction: James R. DeBee
Cultural Vignettes: Signed in ASL by Rosa Lee Gallimore
Signed in ASL by Deaf Children and KODAs of MD and TX
Publisher: ASL Rose
ISBN: 10: 0-976460-04
ISBN: 13: 978-0-9764640-6
ASL Rose http://www.aslrose.com/

Reviewed by Joan Wink & Dawn Wink

At last! A book that illumines the historical and contemporary relationship of the Deaf community with the theories and practices of second-language acquisition in Have You Ever Seen…? An American Sign Language (ASL) Handshape DVD/Book by Adonia K. Smith and E. Lynn Jacobowitz.  While these complex relationships have been explored in depth previously regarding spoken languages, Smith and Jacobowitz bring this foundational knowledge to our understandings of the Deaf community and speakers of ASL.

Just as for years linguistic hegemony presumed the superiority of written over orate language traditions, so too, was it assumed that Deaf people should aspire to assimilate as much as possible into the hearing community, choosing to sign English translations, rather than ASL. Using the foundational research in second-language acquisition and critical pedagogy, Smith and Jacobowitz deconstruct these assumptions—illustrating the damaging effects years of this linguistic domination has had on the Deaf community and providing a comprehensive and practical pedagogical path for the future.  

To represent the Deaf culture’s historical relationship with the hearing community, the authors compare the dynamic nature of ASL to Picasso’s art, and they find Signed English to be as unnatural as paint-by-numbers. The Deaf culture is as rich with humor, story-telling, and mutually-understood traditions as any other culture. Poetry in the Deaf culture is as subtle as in English or any other language, only it is demonstrated in unique ways by the use of rhymes (similar handshapes), rhythms of the movements, and facial grammar. ASLTA is a teachers’ association specifically for the enhancement of ASL. Acronyms are central within Deaf education, too; CODA (child of Deaf adults), SODA (sibling or spouse of Deaf adults), and GODA (grandchild of Deaf adults) are all central to Deaf education. Cherology to the Deaf culture is what phonology is to the non Deaf culture.  Whereas the English alphabet has 26 letters, ASL has 44 handshapes, and the phonology of each is made evident from handshapes, palm orientation, movement, location and non-manual signals.

What sets Have You Ever Seen…? apart from many other books on Deaf education is the bilingual education research that infuses its content. These underlying theoretical assumptions include:

First, ASL is simply another language and therefore fits under the umbrella of bilingual education.  Not only is ASL another language, it is also an authentic, natural, and legitimate language.  Consequently, it is the best medium of instruction for whom ASL is the primary language. James Cummins, internationally respected bilingual researcher, cites the longitudinal data, which demonstrate that knowledge and proficiency in the primary language transfers to the second language and additional languages.  His and many others’ contributions in the field of language acquisition have infused and enhanced Deaf education in the past few decades.

Deaf education has historically been taught from a subtractive approach, which assumed ASL was less than English and that Deaf students had to be assimilated into the hearing culture as much as possible. Based on years of research of the cognitive, academic, and social benefits of learning in the primary language, Deaf education is now taught from an additive or enrichment approach in that language and culture are the foundation for all further learning. Colin Baker’s succinct statement serves as a guiding beacon: A language divorced from its culture is like a body without a soul (p.15). ASL is the body and soul of Deaf education.

Audism, the belief by the hearing community that speech is superior to ASL, has dominated Deaf education. Audism reflects the assumption that the Deaf culture and ASL are intrinsically inferior to a spoken language and that the Deaf should assimilate as much as possible, as quickly as possible, into the hearing culture. This prejudice has had the same effects on the Deaf community as it has on speakers of languages other than English: bicultural ambivalence, which is shame of the first culture, anger toward the second. This deficit assumption carries all of the negative and destructive consequences, which it inherently engenders.

Second, finger spelling and handshapes are not the same thing. Signed English is an artificially constructed language and leads to children not learning, much like speaking Spanish with imposed English grammar and sentence structure. It is a contrived language and serves to diminish the true essence and meaning of real communication, frequently resulting in confusion and hindering cognitive, linguistic, and academic success.  ASL communicates for the Deaf culture their unique linguistic, cultural, and social norms, just as spoken languages do for their linguistic communities.

Third, playing with rhymes (or visual rhymes) is as beneficial in ASL for children’s learning, as is it is English for English-speaking communities or Spanish for Spanish communities, etc. Learning and fun go hand-in-hand. Just as spoken language communities each have jokes, plays on words, and stories unique to that culture, so does the Deaf culture and ASL. Signing these jokes and stories in standard English fails to capture the nuance and subtleties that work to bind the culture together in common experience. It is akin to telling a joke in Spanish to native Spanish speakers, inserting English grammar and sentence structure. Not only does it lose the magic and essence of what is trying to be communicated, it serves to confuse the listener.

Conclusion:

Educators of Deaf and hearing students will benefit enormously from the delightful presentation of essential knowledge about ASL, the Deaf community, and the effects of language assumptions, culture, and pedagogy in the classroom and beyond.   Have You Ever Seen….? provides readers of both Deaf and hearing cultures an overview of some of the unique history and contemporary foundations of Deaf culture, as well as a firm understanding of the relationship between first and second language acquisition and the vital importance of education in ASL and pride in the Deaf culture for the future of Deaf education.

Submitted November 1, 2007

Joan is a professor in the College of Education at California State University, Stanislaus.  Dawn, her daughter, is an instructor at Santa Fe Community College, New Mexico.
www.JoanWink.com
www.DawnWink.com