http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/

For another range of thoughts and comments, you might want to consider joining the deafintl email-based discussion group. Deafintl has more than 200 deaf and hearing subscribers in more than 30 developing and developed countries around the world. It focuses on issues of concern to deaf people in developing countries. Many of the subscribers are from rich countries, but it does include some deaf people in developing countries, so it might be worth trying to get their perspectives on this issue as well. It’s a very quiet list (alas, far quieter than this board), but when people respond it can be interesting.

See http://patriot.net/~ashettle/deafintl for more info on deafintl and how to join.

You might also want to make contact with Global Deaf Connection

http://www.deafconnection.org

This is an organization that works to improve deaf education in Kenya, Jamaica, and DR Congo (and they want to eventually expand to other countries as well). Their workers have probably faced similar challenges so they may have some useful thoughts for you as well.

i think you want to be very careful how you handle this. i understand it feels like a barrier to teaching them english, but its a very tough situation to deal with. you dont want to be the cliche white american colonialist. yet, you want to teach them english — how how? while i cant think of examples right now (other ASL users, help me?) but we have some signs that mean completely different things yet are the same signs. i’ve had hearing people look at me like: “WHAT?! how do you know what you mean” and we just … do. i doubt the students, when using SSL, get this confused - otherwise htey would have fixed it long ago.. it might be useful to find how how teachers of english in the US deal with those situations — they certainly didn’t change our signs..

its very clear that you re being highly attentive and analytical which is great. i think youre learning alot that will carry with you throughout your life.

i think it was great of you to share this and seek feedback.

I think that Adam already understands that “contextual” language is not always easily translatable- especially from English to other non-Romance languages. I am also pretty confident that much of what we are saying here has already crossed his mind at one point or another.

What I am uncomfortable with is how all of us seem to be admonishing you for what we, the readers, still don’t fully understand. Even if we proclaim ourselves to be on “their side”. There’s a huge perspective missing here, and that should come from the students.

~ Deaf Pundit

Okay, not necessarily that bad. Your intent, after all, is to teach SSL users (written?) English. Introducing British signs to convey English written words doesn’t seem too bad on the surface, but considering that this is a country that is relatively newly decolonized, and that you’re not using the rest of BSL to teach English, there are some ethical concerns there. And you also want your students to achieve some sort of self-determination in learning English. Imposing BSL signs on them isn’t gonna do that.

I’m not an expert in pedagogy, so I don’t really have good suggestions, sorry. What do ESOL teachers do? That’s an iffy question in itself because your issue isn’t just one of different languages but also different modalities (I assume you’re struggling with talking in class while referring to written English). Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

And thanks for a fascinating post. Am having fun deciding which one you are, a Sinhala Laurel or a Sinhala Hardy.