By Hilary Franklin
Lately, there has been discussion about Cued Speech in the deaf blogosphere. I have refrained from commenting mostly because trying to explain the facts and correct the misinformation being perpetuated would have resulted in a blog-lengthy post. So, instead, I’m here to explain some major myths and facts.
Before I delve into this blog, let me highlight my background. I am a native cuer, having learned how to cue when I was a wee lassie – 3 ½ years old. Prior to that time, I was raised orally, partly because my audiograms had been inconsistent. It was not until I was three years old that my parents realized just how profound my deafness was. They knew I would never have 100% access to English through residual hearing and lipreading. They had read the research available at the time (late 1970s/early 1980s) and were understandably scared by the 3rd–4th-grade reading levels of deaf signers (of hearing parents) touted by so many. They wanted me to have a strong foundation in English, so they chose the Cued Speech approach to communication and language and have never looked back.
Two years ago, I became a certified instructor of Cued Speech. I took professional workshops and passed the written test and evaluation of my expressive cueing abilities to become certified. I have worked on a pilot study evaluating cued language transliterators, teamed with deaf cueing interns working towards instructor certification, and transcribed video clips for researchers looking at sociolinguistic features of deaf cuers. I also am a hobby linguist – I am fascinated not only by language development, but also sociolinguistics, specifically in the area of interpersonal interaction between deaf individuals who use one or more modes of communication. Additionally, I also have a master’s degree in teaching ASL as a second language and am an adjunct instructor in the World Languages department at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD.
And now, back to Cued Speech.
Just what is Cued Speech, anyway?
Good question! Cued Speech is not a language. Cued Speech is not a tool for teaching speech. Cued Speech IS a mode of communication that allows a person to express and understand a traditionally spoken language visually, through cues.
More formally, Cued Speech is the name of the visual-manual system/code that Dr. Orin Cornett developed in 1965-1966 while working at Gallaudet College. For English, the system comprises eight handshapes that represent consonant phonemes and four hand placements and two movements that represent vowel phonemes. Consonants that have similar mouth shapes are assigned to different handshape groups. Likewise, vowels that look alike are assigned to different hand placement/movement groups. For example:
/m/ /b/ /p/
They all have the same mouth shape, right?
/mat/ /met/ /bat/ /bet/ /pat/ /pet/
Oy vey! Unless you’re an elite lipreader, how can you tell the difference between these words?
- The handshape for /m/ is similar to the open B handshape in ASL.
- The handshape for /b/ is the same as the B handshape in ASL.
- The handshape for /p/ is the same as the 1 handshape in ASL.
- The handshape for /t/ is the same as the handshape for /m/ (/t/ looks very different on the lips than /m/)
- The vowel location for /e/ is at the center of the chin.
- The vowel location for /a/ is at the base of the throat (just above the sternum notch, and below the Adam’s apple).
© National Cued Speech Association
By combining the handshapes, the hand placements/movements, and the mouth shapes (no voice required), the distinction between look-alike mouth shapes is made completely clear. Cues are strung together, just like consonants and vowels are strung together. A single cue comprises a consonant-vowel combination. For example:
The word tea is one cue: /tee/, whereas the word tiki is two cues: /tee/ + /kee/.
For words that have “null” vowels or consonants like meet, which has no vowel after the /t/, a rule exists to cue the /t/ in a “neutral” location, which shows that it is a /t/ without a vowel after it. Likewise, vowels have a neutral handshape that indicates it is produced alone or at the beginning of a new word or syllable (like eye/I or e-mail).
Therefore, cueing provides immediate access to consonant-vowel languages that are traditionally spoken. With all the phonemic information visible on the lips and hands, we can cue strings of consonant-vowel combinations, just as if we were speaking them. We can cue various everyday words, nonsense “words” like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or oompa loompa, or foreign words such as gracias and auf wiedersehen. We can even cue the current longest word in the English dictionary: antidisestablishmentarianism.
Now, a major reason for the confusion about what Cued Speech is results from the second word in the name of the system, “speech.” Dr. Cornett was a physicist and mathematician, not a linguist or speech therapist, and liked to solve logic puzzles. Additionally, Cued Speech was developed in the mid-1960s, when many people thought that phonics and speech and language were intimately linked and could not be separated. We now know that’s not true. It is possible to have phonemic awareness without speaking. I know quite a few cuers who do not use their voices. Therefore, the name “Cued Speech” was perfectly agreeable at that time. The name of the system has been, and will continue to be known as Cued Speech. It’s not going to change.
Cued Speech ≠ Speech
While it is possible to cue speech sounds individually, simply cueing alone cannot and will not improve any deaf person’s speech. What it can do is provide visual biofeedback to a deaf or hard of hearing (or hearing second language learner) who is struggling with a target sound. For example, if you’re trying to say “k” but it sounds like “g,” the speech therapist will cue to you what you’re actually producing. There is nothing in the cues that tells you that the back of the tongue must be raised to the roof of the mouth and then brought down, without any vocal cord movement, to create the sound “k.” The responsibility of teaching speech still belongs to the speech therapists, parents, and anyone involved with the speech training of the deaf child.
Pronunciation can be corrected though, provided the deaf cuer has the ability to produce the speech sounds. For example, when I was about eight years old, I saw a Home Depot and turned to my mother and said, “oh, look, home dee-POT!” She laughed and cued, “no, it’s home dee-PO.” I became cranky and complained about the silent “t” at the end of the word. She explained to me that the word is French and that we “borrow” the French pronunciation of their words. So while she could correct my pronunciation of the word depot, she did not teach me how to say the individual sounds in that word – my speech therapists did.
Language & Communication (in English)
Languages are expressed in different ways: they can be spoken, written, or signed. They can also be cued. Speaking is a mode. Writing is a mode. Signing is a mode. Cueing is a mode. When we think of English, we typically think of spoken English or written English (and sometimes signed English). We don’t think about cued English as often, but it happens every day. Of these modes, only speaking and cueing are the most parallel. The written form of English does not always jibe with the spoken form. For example, cheer and fear sound the same, but fear and bear do not. And then bear and bare are exactly alike! Good grief! However, each of those words are cued comparatively to the spoken form, not to the written form. Also, this means that residual hearing is not necessary component of understanding cued English. The system is entirely visual.
Manually Coded English Systems
Signed English and other manually coded English (MCE) sign systems do not accurately portray the properties of the English language. While you can sign CAT + S to represent the idea of “more than one cat,” the sign for CAT has no inherent relationship to /k, a, t/. It is one of the few “iconic” signs that represents a physical feature of the object/person; in this case, cats or gatos. The same is true for any sign – I don’t know of any signs that represent the phonemic properties of English words. The created endings — -S, -ING, -ED, etc., show the spelling, and even the movement for “-ING” typically doesn’t show the individual fingerspelled letters I-N-G.
And then add to the mix the MCE systems that try to break down compound words. For example, the word butterfly in Seeing Essential English is broken down into the signs for butter and fly. In other words, the person would sign BUTTER and then sign FLY. Somehow, I just really don’t want to associate butter and planes with butterflies.
Cued Language/cued English
Because we are cueing the basic elements of consonant-vowel languages, we refer to cued communication as cued language. Thus, children who are exposed to English or other spoken languages through cueing have direct access to the consonant-vowel structure and grammar rules and can begin developing a mental understanding of English (or Spanish, French, Hebrew, Hindi, etc.), even if they never hear the sounds or speak them. In the United States, deaf cuers communicate in cued English.
Deaf cuers (and hearing cuers) who have fluent/proficient expressive and receptive abilities communicate with one another as naturally as hearing individuals talk to each other or signing people with each other. While the deaf cueing community here in the United States is admittedly relatively small (compared to the signing and oral communities), believe me, when we get together, many of us enjoy being able to communicate in our native mode!
Cued language transliterating
Unlike ASL interpreters, cued language transliterators convey the exact message being said and in the same language, just in a different mode – spoken English to cued English or vice versa. If I’m in a biology class and the professor is talking about the process of mitosis, the transliterator doesn’t need to understand what mitosis is or have to worry about making sure the concept is conveyed accurately. As a student, that’s my job – to understand what the professor is saying. And seeing as how I know next to nothing about mitosis:
“Mitosis is nuclear division plus cytokinesis, and produces two identical daughter cells during prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.”
All the transliterator has to do is cue:
/mie, toe, si, s, i, z, nue, k, lee, r, di, vi, zhuh, n, p, luh, s, sie, toe, ki, ne, si, s ……/
You get the idea. It’s just consonants and vowels strung together. Easy work for the transliterator. Not so easy for someone trying to interpret that into ASL.
Cued Speech and American Sign Language
What I’m about to say here is a fairly radical idea and one that is just beginning to be discussed in various circles. With the growing interest in bilingual-bicultural education, the importance of stressing proficiency in English and ASL is even more paramount. For so long, deaf education professionals, parents, and deaf individuals themselves have struggled to provide deaf children with clear access to English. Teaching English via cueing provides that answer. Cueing is direct and visually conveys the elements of English at the most basic, necessary language foundation level to anyone, deaf or hearing. Signing is direct and visually conveys the most basic, necessary foundation of American Sign Language to anyone, deaf or hearing.
Signing is a mode that should be used exclusively for signed languages. Cueing is a mode that should be used exclusively for cued/spoken languages. No longer would signs and fingerspelling need to be used for English words or in English order. With access to appropriate ASL and cued English language models, children could be immersed in both languages through entirely visual-manual means, and separately from one another. We have all seen the influence of English language order signs on ASL. With both ASL and MCE systems using signs as the mode of communication, it is inevitable that teaching English through signs will affect a person’s ASL proficiency and perhaps understanding of the English language itself. Thus, by cueing in English and signing in ASL, you will be ensuring and encouraging the appropriate use and development of each language.
The importance of visual, clear access to English in the home
There is also the issue of deaf children needing appropriate access to language at home. We all know that the majority of parents are hearing and do not sign fluent ASL. We cannot reasonably expect these parents to become fluent signers and appropriate ASL models overnight. Learning a new language takes as much as two years or more, even with full immersion. A deaf child born into a hearing family that does not provide visual, appropriate, and complete access to the language environment will have a language delay by the time s/he enters formal schooling.
Because Cued Speech is a finite system based upon the consonant-vowel properties of English (and other spoken languages), it is possible for parents and other family members to learn to cue in just a few hours, usually over the course of a two-day workshop. Rather than learning a new language, they are learning a new code for a language they already know. They leave the workshops cueing accurately, but slowly. With practice, speed and fluency come, but they can start cueing anything they say to their child. Thus, parents become appropriate models of English to their deaf child(ren), and immediately. I also encourage parents to expose their children to deaf signers who are appropriate ASL models. In this way, the children have access to the family’s home language AND to American Sign Language, not some creolian mix of PSE or signing/lipreading combinations, etc.
Deaf Cuers and Identity
Again, the d/Deaf cueing community is a small subset of the large d/Deaf community in the United States. Not all cuers learn how to sign. Many do, and for various reasons. I won’t dare represent anyone else but me. I grew up in the DC area and therefore have interacted with signers since I was in elementary school. It was necessary for me to learn how to sign fluently to interact with other deaf peers in middle school and high school, and I embraced it eagerly. If I had attended a school where I was the only deaf student and in a location where access to the signing deaf community was limited, I might not be signing today.
With regard to identity, I have always identified myself as a person who is deaf. I also identify as a native cuer and near-native signer. In some blogs, I’ve seen people suggest or imply that because not all deaf cuers are obviously “out” as cuers that they’re ashamed of having grown up cueing. I will tell you that my personal experiences and various discussions with my fellow cueing friends present a completely different view. I don’t think any of us are ashamed about cueing, and we would gladly talk about it – it’s just that many times, Cued Speech doesn’t come up in conversation. Or, when it is brought up, sometimes the attitude of the other person is negative and it’s better to handle that kind of situation privately than in public. Also, sometimes the cuer’s background just isn’t relevant to the topic or situation at hand. For example, if you and I are having a discussion about international politics, why would I mention Cued Speech or that I’m a native cuer?
And thus ends my blog…
I hope this blog has been informative and educational. I have been saddened lately by the amount of misinformation and assumptions that have been tossed about, and I hope this clarifies many questions. However, I have no doubt that this will generate more questions, which I am pleased to answer or refer you to the appropriate person(s).
The National Cued Speech Association recently created several information papers that cover a variety of myths and facts, ranging from cueing with babies to cueing as part of a bilingualism approach to cueing with cochlear implant users, etc. They are available in .pdf format. Please feel free to click on the following link and take some time to read them. The NCSA also recently updated their position statements, which are available online as well.
Cued Speech: Myths and Facts Information Papers (research citations included) http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/cued/myths_facts.asp
NCSA Position Statements
http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/about/position.asp
Selected CS Research
http://www.dailycues.com/papers.html
Hilary Franklin is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and Teachers College. She has a bachelor’s degree in public policy with an specialization in education and a master’s degree in Teaching American Sign Language as a Foreign Language. She is currently wrapping up her first semester as an adjunct instructor of ASL at Howard Community College.
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A job well done! I couldn’t have done any better myself.
Thank you for enlightening us about cued speech. I am always confused by it as either Cued Speech or Cued Language. The idea of using cued speech in Bi Bi is new, and I am sure there will be a great resistance against it.
But do carry on… we have to be open-minded. One shoe size does not fit all ;o).
Thank you for a very informative post. I’ve always been curious about Cued Speech, and reading this has helped me to better understand this communication system.
I am a deaf person who grew up in an hearing environment as the only deaf child in the family, and in the school…and this was back in the days before PL94-142 or IDEA. I had no real support services, it was basically put aids on me, seat me to the front of the class, and watch me sink or swim. I can’t help wondering if things would have been easier if I’d had the benefit of at least Cued Speech to help me out.
I’m curious tho - as an adult who has been signing for 30+ years, what would be the benefit to my learning Cued Speech now? I certainly can see the benefit of Cued Speech as an educational tool for deaf children and could even see myself implementing it for my own deaf child if I had one… but as a 40-something deaf adult, would it benefit me to learn Cued Speech at this point in my life?
Since English is my native language (even though I consider myself proficient in ASL), and I do maintain strong speech and lipreading skills, I can see where I might benefit from the use of Cued Speech, but I do wonder if it would be worth learning it at this stage of my life, especially since I am skilled in ASL and do use sign language interpreters.
Some of the concerns I have include:
1.) If I did want to learn it, how would I go about doing so? While there are plenty of classes in ASL in the area, I’m not aware of any teaching Cued Speech.
2.) Who would I use it with? I don’t know of any individuals who do use Cued Speech, and the Deaf Community that I have associated with doesn’t seem to include any such people (of course I could be wrong, and it’s just that as you said it has never come up and they have never demonstrated such knowledge in my presence.)
3.) If I wanted to use a Cued Speech transliterator, how easy would it be to find such a person? Something tells me that they aren’t exactly prevalent in Central Illinois, and I have never met anyone who indicated knowing this skill, nor do I recall ever attending a conference or the like where such a transliterator was present. Sign language interpreting, naturally… oral interpreting, yes…CART services, indeed… but a Cued Speech transliterator? Never. Something tells me they are not that easy to find.
I’m not saying this to be argumentative, Hilary. I really am curious about this system and the benefits it could have. It’s just that I haven’t really been exposed to it, haven’t met any individuals who use it or demonstrated it in my presence, and it just sorta comes across as something that is more beneficial if you learn it as a child, and that you perhaps continue to use with other cuers as an adult, but not necessarily learn it when you are an adult.
Can you give me any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
seconded. you said it all.
If I may… I’d like to offer some input as a non-native cuer?
I learned all the handshapes and locations back in 2000. You can do the same yourself by downloading the graphics online. If I put some thought into it, I can cue some sentences pretty well. But, I will always be slow and awkward — and that’s only half of the equation! I just *can’t* understand cues as well as I can cue. I think it’s very difficult to learn how to “read” cues when you’re an adult, just like it’d be hard learning how to “read” fingerspelling at normal/rapid speed (unless you submerge yourself completely in the signing population for quite some time). So, if you were to learn how to read cues, you’d better be prepared to hang out with many cuers (they cue differently!) — it’s not exactly something you can do by yourself at home.
I really wish I could read with ease — so I could choose cued speech transliterators over ASL interpreters for lectures. ASL interpreters just muddle the intended message (NO NO matter how qualified or skilled they are — they still muddle it anyway. But then again, transliterators do miss a lot of the spoken message as well — but they’re still far more accurate by my book.) Hell, if I could read cues easily, I’d even try taking a Spanish course at the local college. I just feel that CS broadens your options.
I would love to answer all of your other questions, but I will let Hilary handle that :) Great article, Hilary!
Get your husband to cue to you! That’s how you get practice cuereading… ;-)
There’s also a videotape called “Building Cue Reading”….language matters, inc. Check it out!
JT - I agree with you! I love ASL and all that, but for instance, I really hate going to interpreted plays ecause I always feel that something is lost or the message is changed. Those days, I only go to plays or concerts, depending on who the interpreter is, because I want to watch THEIR show. :)
Virginia,
Your questions are totally valid. With CS being just a mere 41 years old this year, it’s probably younger than you, and there are still a lot of growing pains going on. ;-) The fact that you’re in central Illinois does put you in a good position — Chicago has quite a number of deaf cuers. If you email me privately (firstname.lastname@gmail.com), I can put you in touch with the locals.
1) Cued Speech workshops can be requested at any time. The NCSA website has a list of certified instructors around the nation. In fact, I think Illinois State University will be holding a class in the fall, and you may be able to sit in on that.
To find an instructor: http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/.....ructor.asp
With regard to learning it now and the lack of knowing someone (consciously) who cues, that definitely is a problematic issue. You’re not the first person to ask me about that. Basically…
If you want to learn and you’re motivated to socialize, then I say go for it. Transliterators are fairly replete in the Chicago area, so if you learned how to cue and wanted cued language transliterators (CLTs) for meetings, workshops, etc. (especially mental health ones that have a lot of specific terminology!), then you’d benefit from it, at least from a professional standpoint. I do know cuers who don’t socialize much with other cuers, but who have CLTs for direct access to information.
Also, the reason many transliterators and instructors are not easy to find is simple:
SUPPLY/DEMAND. It’s just like economy…we really need to work to train a lot more transliterators — the problem is, not all states recognize Cued Speech yet (although federal law now does) and are resistant to providing it in school districts and universities because they don’t want to pay to train staff for one or two or three students.
One thing I’m working with others on is showcasing the need for cueing to be available all over the United States. If we can get a lot more transliterators (I would love to see sign interpreters also become dually certified as cued language transliterators), as well as teachers of the deaf become open-minded about cueing. Honestly, it’s a domino effect, Virginia — we’re still struggling today with teachers, SLPs, audiologists, and even members of the deaf community who are resistant.
In short…if ye ask, ye shall receive. :)
Thanks!
I wanted to say something about what you said about manually coded sign systems.
I grew up using Signing Essentially English, or something like that. I signed every word that was found in an English sentence, and no it wasn’t like the horrifying “butter” “fly”. Most of my signs came from ASL signs, and some other signs were modified and then followed the rules of the English language instead of ASL. Also “ing” “ed” “s” etc were added to the end of a word whenever necessary. So if i said cats, i basically did say “cat”+”s”.. for walking i’d do “walk”+”ing”. It was strung out and somewhat boring to watch compared to ASL, which is a beautiful language. SEE2 isn’t a language, but it did have signs for every word in an English sentence… or whatever it is that I used did. I thought for a long time that i used SEE1 until i found out about the “butter”+”fly” which is nothing like what i used, i eventually realized, through research, that SEE2 was more like what i used and still do use on a regular basis, although i have adapted more to PSE. But if i was going to choose between sim-com or SEE2, i’d pick SEE2 by far because at least i would get full access to information instead of bits there and here with sim-com as speech always rules over sign when it comes to sim-com, in my experience at least.
I grew up using Signed English, too. It was very similiar to what you did. An interesting thing, I noticed that as I got older and I became fluent in English, which showed in my writing and reading skilss, my parents and I became lazy about signing it accurately. We were like, do we have to sign “ING” EVERY TIME??? And I ended up dropping the endings, and modifying the signs to make them easier to do, not as stactic. It was interesting how my signs changed as I got older. Of course, part of it was exposure to other deaf kids my own age. They weren’t ASLers either, but put a bunch of deaf kids together, and you know the whole “Signed English” thing won’t last long..
I learned ASL later in life, and I now teach it, embrace it, breathe it.. I even dream it. What can I say? English was my first love. ASL is my second.
Anyway…… when I first heard about cued speech, I was very resistant, but as part of a personal research project for my job, I was immediately intrigued. I am planning to attend my first cued class very soon, so I am excited. :)
Thanks, Hillary, for posting this. I am really intrigued mostly of the idea of getting English directly without any interference at all. I love ASL, but for instance, I hate going to plays because I want to know what is said in ENGLISH!
Oh, I do remember complaining about having to sign all those endings. I thought it was really stupid, even back then. English is my first language as well, but SEE - blehh. Thanks for the informative article about cued speech! I had a classmate who used cued speech. In retrospect, I think the deaf program that I was in at the time was unique in that the oral, signed and cued groups were all housed in the same elementary school. So that even though I was in the oral group, I did have exposure to sign language, which I’m really grateful for as it enabled me to have interpreters in jr and high school. In sixth grade, I was moved to another elementary school where the group was all oral. Officially, that is. The teacher did know sign language and she would use it at times (I suspect she knew that us “oral” kids still needed to communicate somehow).
I’m having a hard time making the connection as to how transliterating English phonetically using fingers would make the conversation really clear . . .
the SEE example is from a subset of the MCE systems that was commonly used in Texas and in some other places. I’ll never forget when one of my Texan friends showed me that “butterfly” compound sign in middle school. Ye gads.
Morphemic Sign System (MSS) was (is??) used in the deaf program at Richardson Independent School District, near Dallas.
I learned my first signs there when I was in elementary school. I remember seeing a table or two of the deaf kids in the lunchroom and wishing I could understand the flutter of hands. I’ll bet you a nickel they didn’t use strict MSS among themselves socially, especially as they got older (as others have said in comments on this page about their school signing systems). I was only bussed to that school one day a week to attend a separate program, so I didn’t have the oportunity to get to know anyone in the deaf program. But that general exposure 20 years ago sparked a lifetime of learning ASL and Deaf culture. :)
Back to MSS: I think the signs I was taught were based on SEE signs… Initialized C in CAT, K in KITTEN, W in WE, etc. But I know I got a handout that talked about MSS - breaking up English words into morphemes (or what that string of letters *can* mean as a prefix, root, or suffix in English) and signing each morpheme individually.
For example, bringing a left-hand C and right-hand M together to touch at the thumbs meant “com-” as in the Anglicized Latin
root for “with” (signed with a similar movement as WITH in ASL). If I remember correctly, it was the fist part of the sign for “computer.”
When you think “computer” do you think of the concept of “with” as being part of its meaning? Probably not.
The woman who taught us was a hearing parent of a deaf child. She used a typewritten dictionary of signs. I guess it was in some kind of Stokoe notation adapted for typewriter. I think I saw a book like that for SEE 1 in the deaf stacks at the Gally library.
SEE 1 is where butter + fly comes from, I think. But in MSS would be but + er + fly
(BUT as in the conjunction, ER as version of the superlative suffix -er signed with an R handshape, and FLY as in what an airplane does - signed with the ILY handshape.)
That’s how it’s signed, even tho those so-called morphemes have nothing to do with butterfly. Butterfly is one morpheme and means that floaty pretty flying bug with colorful wings. So MSS may have been an attempt at conveying English meaning, but it actually conveyed a horribly low level of conceptual accuracy.
I think this kind of situation sparked the movement toward more conceptually accurate English-like signing. However, using one language to convey another will never approach 100% conceptual accuracy, no matter what the two langauges are. This is one reason that some people support cueing instead of sign-based MCE systems for conveying English - there’s no conceptual mimatch when you don’t have to cobble together ASL signs in a non-ASL way. Instead, you can let ASL be ASL and English be English, and have 100% visual access to both languages.
Great post, you!!
can this please be explained in ASL on vlog ?
(i never meet a Deaf bilingual person who use both ASL and Cued Spoken English )
pax mcc-
Hillary can sign ASL :). But yeah, it’s a good idea.
I wish I could — I don’t have vlog capability and DeafDC doesn’t host vlogs — but you can see a short one here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjTmcWChm6g
This isn’t a vlog, but I’m sure people here would appreciate a visual comparison. This is a clip I’ve used with my daughter (who is being raised bilingually with ASL/CE, btw) when she gets tired of looking at me. The video’s a couple years old, though, and I WISH they’d make more of these!
There’re videos of the same story in ASL, CE, and SEE. Have fun.
http://pbskids.org/lions/cornerstones/click/story/
Thank you for a well-written and comprehensive article on Cued Speech (’English’?).
I teach in an elementary school, mostly Deaf 1st graders. I have toyed with the idea of introducing CS as the second component in the ‘Bi-Bi’ Deaf education approach, despite the fact that I do not know CS, nor do any of the support staff.
However, when it came to learning the CS regimen, I was saddened to find out that for every vowel, I had to learn every consonant to make up all possible vowel pairs. It would have taken me way too much time to learn CS proficiently in order to use it in the classroom.
If I ever do get a permanent job within the school district, I’ll be sure to seriously give CS a good workout this summer and see if I can use it in a true Bi-Bi setting with Deaf elementary students. I am quite confident that such an approach would be very successful.
Hopefully this article will open more doors in Deaf institutions and elementary schools serving self-contained Deaf classes everywhere.
Vinny,
I’m confused… are you saying that you wanted to learn how to cue only the vowels? English is a consonant-vowel language, so yes, we pair the consonants with the vowels — it allows us to follow the syllabic pattern that happens in speaking.
But as I said before, there are only 8 handshapes — there are only about 40 phonemes in English, so it’s a case of memorizing which handshapes are for which consonants and which placements are for which vowels and then putting them together. 40 cues doesn’t seem like a lot compared to 2,000+ signs…
:)
Hilary
Well, I really didn’t want to go into this in minute detail. :) I’ll try to be brief;
At the beginning of the year, I was still teaching the ABC’s to my students. I thought, why not learn Cueing each letter as the class progresses through the alphabet? For example, the vast majority of the class would only learn up to letter ‘D’, and I would learn the Cued sign equivalent for that letter, and be somewhat ‘ahead’ of the class.
To my disappointment, in addition to learning about the letter ‘D’, I had to learn the vowel pairs for that letter, making the learning curve steeper. I knew then I wouldn’t be able to impart my Cued Speech ‘language model’ upon my class, as I don’t know how to use CS.
I knew that in order to adequately serve my class justice, I would have to be fully proficient in CS before I used it for the first time in the classroom. I abandoned my CS ambitions, and yes, they were fleeting to begin with, and just focused on written English and ASL for language development within the classroom.
Hopefully, it’ll change this summer. I would love the opportunity to learn CS and use it for the 2007-2008 school year in an elementary school setting!
Ah, gotcha… now I understand where you’re coming from. Where are you located? I might be able to put you in touch with an appropriate contact person.
A very informative and straight-forward article, Hilary. Thank you for writing this. This certainly clears up some misconceptions that many of us, including me, had.
How is the information flow in cued speech? John Egbert had it on the nose when he compared various sign systems with their capacity for information flow…very high for ASL and very low for fingerspelling and oral methods.
Even with the answers given here in your blog, I would hesitate to consider it an introduction to language for the young deaf child because of the information flow problem. Too much of the mechanics would get in the way of that, just as with oralism.
It might be a tool of the speech teacher and speech classes, however, since those classes focus on the mechanics of producing speech.
Dianerez,
That sounds like what people who supported oralism said about sign language - that it was too primitive and that it was a good fallback option for oral failures. The concept of “information flow” also appears to be a way to explain away fear of the unknown.
To say that cued speech has low information flow is akin to saying that spoken language has low information flow. The fact is, they’re simply different. Where you can visually describe beautiful scenery in ASL, like Austin Andrews did, you can also listen to Shakespeare’s eloquent language, via spoken language/cued speech like widlstarryskies above wants to see.
I hope this helps you understand that both are different, one is not better or worse than the other.
and it’s quite ironic to see this comment here because growing up as a native cuer I often looked at ASLers and thought I was so much more advanced because I could pack more information in because I was using English and not those STORE-ME-GO guestures. Oh, how little I really knew… !
Diane,
Shane and Allison answered this question, but I just wanted to second what they said. Native cuers, like native signers, are very fluent, and they have complete command of the language they’re using (in this case, English). There are actually not a lot of mechanics — if you look at the chart above, that’s the ENTIRE mechanics of the system, and no information gets “lost” because we’re struggling with trying to lipread the difference between such sentences as:
My father met mom today.
My father met Bob today.
My father bet mom today.
etc….
It’s a good selling point. I have learned so much in this blog. Thanks!
You’re welcome. :)
Intriguing! Thank you, Hilary, for an informative blog. Cueing, indeed, just might have a place in Bi-Bi education. I would love to hear from anyone who learned both ASL and C.S. at approximately the same time. More studies, more research, more experiments, please!
I grew up using what I think must have been SEE2 (certainly never signed butter+fly!!!) even though I spent a couple of formative (English language-wise) years in Houston, TX. I simply do not have the patience for using that today but I do have frustration with the impossibility of perfectly interpreted college lectures. I was only able to put up with one SEE2 interpreter (transliterator) because she was EXTREMELY fast and smooth. Even then, it was a drain on my eyes, and she did not have the time to insert tones and inflections what with all that signing/spelling every single word - tones and inflections sometime can be very crucial to the message, after all.
ETA: that SEE2 terp was from way back, about 15 years ago? I do not know if I’d have the patience for that today.
Belle — your comment about patience with SEE? *smiling* I definitely understand where you’re coming from!
We NEED more studies, research, experiments, etc.! There is an ongoing fMRI research study at Georgetown University right now looking at the brains of cuers (both hearing and deaf) to see where they process language. The study is not yet complete, and I’m eagerly anticipating those results.
Also, another major problem with research is that a lot of research has been done by college students for their master’s theses or doctoral dissertations and therefore, those papers are UNPUBLISHED. We need people willing to do research not just for degree completion, but for publication purposes.
I’ll confess something that may get a lot of double-takes from people who know me well. I have native or native-like proficiency in English and in ASL. I love both languages and I always prefer the original language to a translation. I’d rather watch TV with CC than watch an interpreter signing the episode, and I’d rather watch signing in a vlog than read the subtitles (if any). By the same token, I’d rather use the language others are using in a given situation than deal with translation. I hated grad school, hate interpreted plays, watch a person talking instead of the interpreter, prefer IM relay to video relay, et cetera, all because I want direct access in the same language that’s being used.
It is for all these reasons/factors that cueing intrigues me. I’d love to be able to go to a conference, workshop, class, or whatever, and get info directly in English without a ‘terp butchering the translation. (No offense to ‘terps out there!) I’m in love with the idea, and as a skilled lipreader and one who has a facility (and propensity!) for picking up languages easily, I see this as doable.
I can also see this working alongside ASL in the school system, albeit with caveats covering stuff like equal respect for ASL, cueing limited to very specific situations, etc, etc. I disagree with Hilary’s assertion that fingerspelling would be rendered unnecessary. Fingerspelling plays a crucial role in ASL and in English acquisition. And no, I don’t have citations at the moment - I’m on a train, writing this from my pager. My problem is that I feel like I’m betraying my ideals - ASL can be, and is, successfully used to teach English. (No, no citations, but I do have an unpublished paper by Jim Cummins laying out the evidence, citing research from more than a handful of researchers at work.) This would have to be explored, researched, and discussed carefully before proceeding to incorporate cued speech in the classroom on a large scale.
So where does this leave me?
I’m outing myself as a cued-speech-curious person with questions. I’d love answers.
1. Research on cued speech in Bilingual settings? Details, details!
2. What is the learning curve and feasibility for someone learning CS as an adult and using transliterators in place of ‘terps for complex topics?
3. Stories from adult CS learners? Advice?
Anything would be so appreciated!
1. Not a lot, but there are a few papers floating around. Here are a couple:
LaSasso & Metzger (1998). An alternate route for preparing deaf children for BiBi programs: The home language as L1 and Cued Speech for conveying traditionally-spoken languages.
Kyllo (2003). Phonemic awareness through immersion in cued American English. (Note: Kitri Kyllo works at a bi-bi school in Minnesota that uses ASL and cued English, which is why I’m including this paper.)
Wood (2003). Cued Speech and American Sign Language go hand in hand for me. (personal account)
2. With regard to the learning curve, that’s an interesting question. I know adults who have learned it and used transliterators, but I don’t know what their learning curve was. One of those was a HOH mother of 6 children, 3 of whom are deaf, and the family decided to use cued English. One of the sons grew up HOH but in college, he lost a good chunk of his hearing and had to begin using transliterators, which he had not in the past. I know that he had a hard time at first, but now he’s doing really well (and in medical school!). Also, I would expect that you would need to see cued English every day to be completely comfortable with using it sooner rather than later. The fact that you already know English helps a lot. And because the mouth shapes used for speaking are the same ones for cueing, you can use the cues to “assist” you in lipreading until you become comfortable with the cues and can cueread easily.
3. I’d like to see some adult learners of CS jump in here. JT did briefly comment elsewhere in this blog, and she’s an adult learner, but her husband and all her friends sign, so she doesn’t see cueing every day. I do have a friend who grew up oral and learned about CS in college. She learned the system and began using a transliterator immediately. She’s now working as a teacher of the deaf and hoping to become a certified instructor soon. Her cueing skills (expressive and receptive) are pretty good!
In response to #3, this is exactly why I suspect oral students tend to pick up cueing more easily, because they have already been relying on their phonetic awareness for communication. Paraprofessionals are often surprised at how well I understand the rules of phonemes, including their exceptions, especially for somebody with my degree of hearing loss and preferred mode of communication. But, even with all that knowledge, I still instinctively think of words in their written form — and then fail to make the connection while reading their cues. That’s my biggest challenge, and also the same challenge that many other adult learners have.
Hilary, wasn’t there a study done on how native cuers’ brains are wired similarly to their hearing counterparts — as in how the same areas “lit” up during reading exercises?
JT, that study is still in progress, I think — at least, the results haven’t been disclosed. I’m guessing the data is being analyzed, but yes, the initial findings were that native cuers processed language information in both the auditory-language and visual cortexes (sp?) of the brain….
I don’t think Hilary meant that fingerspelling in general would be rendered unnecessary. Just that visually conveying English phrases and sentences does not require full-on Rochester Method when you have a whole other system (cueing) to use. Fingerspelling and reading long fingerspelled phrases can get tiring pretty fast. Also, ingerspelling big chunks of English text or conversations does not allow you to follow the prosody (speed, emphasis, flow, expression, etc.) of English the way cueing can.
Of course, fingerspelling is an important and intrinsic part of ASL. Fingerspelled words can routinely become sign-like (lexicalized) and that is the correct way a native ASL signer signs it. I didn’t get the impression that Hilary meant to say otherwise about the role of fingerspelling in ASL.
CueSign Conference!
Go to http://www.cuesigncamp.com and check out the information. Amy Crumrine is the founder of CueSign, Inc. I plan to go myself, for a few days at least. Held at NTID in Rochester, NY, CueSign Conference (the camp is held every other year) would be a great place to learn about bilingualism (or rather multilingualism as some people are starting to push).
Hope to see many of you there!
hmmm.. Earlybird discount for the CueSign Conference ends today, May 15.
Just FYI.
This was a very informative post. However, you know what’s ironic? The reason that deaf children are graduating from high school on the 3rd grade reading level is because of the Oralism movement. Check out Paddy Ladd’s book if you don’t believe me. Prior to that, deaf people had better literacy skills because of ASL and fingerspelling (do you notice that older deaf people tend to fingerspell much more than younger deaf people?). So I’m not sure where CS comes into play with this issue. I can see the benefits of a deaf child learning to read through CS but I would be concerned with reading comprehension being lost since CS is not a language all on its own. You could use both ASL and CS, I suppose.
I don’t know why I feel resistance towards CS but it’s probably because there’s one deaf girl here in Vermont who uses it. Only people who can use CS can communicate with her: her parents, sisters, teachers and transliterator. I can’t even have a conversation with her. Isn’t that sad? ASL is much more widespread than CS and a more effective means for natural communication.
I think the whole point is that CS is great for the classroom, to learn english, and for a way for deaf children to talk with their hearing parents. I would never advocate teaching Cs ALONE. I think both ASL and CS would work together best.
I agree with you on that one, WSS.
Seconded, but we also need to be aware of where these people are located. Not all parents can move to an area that is “rich” in deaf community resources just because they have a child who is deaf. I was incredibly lucky to have parents who moved not once, but twice, for me. Also, the parents’ own emotions, feelings, beliefs, etc., need to be taken into consideration. We should encourage all parents to have their children learn ASL so they can interact with other deaf peers who sign.
I do agree with Shane–I think it’s great that she can communicate with the people she sees the most — her family, teachers, etc. The school day is only 6 hours out of 24. That she has a transliterator means she automatically gets language access during school hours PLUS at home with her family. I think that’s great. If her parents didn’t sign OR cue, that would be a lot more worrisome.
Keri,
While you may think that it is sad that you cannot communicate with her, I think that it is great that the girl can communicate directly with her parents, sisters, and teachers. I do not think that oralism should be the sole scapegoat for low reading levels. It also has to do with children who cannot communicate with their family. Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgement.
Perhaps you could learn cued speech and communicate with her? Wouldn’t it be cool to acquire a new skill?
Keri,
Let me tell you a story about myself. I was born profoundly deaf and diagnosed at 18 months. My parents discovered Cued Speech and started learning it when I was 19 months. At 2 years old, I started showing expressive language.
At 3 years old, I was diagnosed with an 18 month language delay. Here’s the crazy thing. I was held back in 1st grade, but my mom got pissed off and found out it was her decision and not the teachers to hold me back. I was tested to read at the 4th grade level while I was in 1st grade. How the heck did that happen? I was completely deaf and my hearing aids didn’t do jack for me.
This was all before I had the CI (which I received when I was 6 years old). At the same time, you need to consider that not all deaf people grow up in a community with other deaf people. I grew up in Wilmington, where the deaf community consisted of many older signers (most of who actually learned to sign later). There were no ASL models anywhere, except for one woman who was exceptionally fluent in both CS and ASL. This woman was amazing, but she communicated to me via CS because English was my home language.
Many people can argue that all deaf children need to learn ASL, but the problem is who can they learn ASL from if not their parents? Just as we have a shortage of Cuer models, we have a shortage of “qualified” ASL models.
The sadness of it all is I only started to learn ASL this year, but hey better late than never, right?
Aaron, first of all, I think it’s awesome you are learning ASL now. I have had several hard-of-hearing students in my ASL classes so I agree it’s never too late to learn. =)
I’m not critcizing anyone here on using CS. Especially since most of us were born to hearing parents (including myself) and they made these choices for us. I’m just concerned about parents subjecting their child ONLY to CS. That’s the case with the deaf girl I was talking about earlier. Her parents do not allow her to interact with deaf children. I guess they want her to be as “hearing” as possible. It saddens me that the myth of using ASL will cause poor English skills is still out there.
And Shane, thanks for your suggestion. If the need arises, perhaps I will learn to CS. At this point, I don’t see the deaf girl often enough (maybe once every 3-4 years) to make it worthwhile.
I’m not against CS but I am concerned that it will be used in place of ASL. ASL is a true language as opposed to CS and SEE. The videos that Allison linked above made that very clear. For reading comprehension, the ASL version would be the most effective (provided that the child knows ASL, of course). Did anyone actually enjoy the other two versions (regardless of language skill/preference)? The CS version was so dry, my eyes focused tensely on one area while the SEE version was startling for me due to the fact many of the signs were not conceptually correct which can lead to a lack of comprehension of the story. From my experience working with deaf children, reading comprehension is the skill that is lacking the most of all due to hearing teachers teaching them to sign sentences in books WORD FOR WORD. Then again, it’s not only deaf schools/programs that are lacking; it’s the general American education system. That’s why I’m planning on homeschooling my son. =D I don’t know what else to say so I’ll say tata for now. =)
I think her parents are doing her a real disservice. What about jr high school? High school? That’s when you really get into social groups and if her peers can’t communicate with her, she’s going to feel left out. How many hearing kids know cued speech? Even if they don’t know ASL, they’ve certainly been exposed to at least fingerspelling.
And when she becomes an adult? Going out in the working world. How many cued speech interpreters are going to be available when reaches that age?
Lolajl,
The girl will probably run into the same problems you outline above with sign language. If she is growing up in a place where there are sparse deaf people, which is more important, learning sign language so she can eventually socialize with deaf people (and many cuers learn sign language later) or communicating with her parents, sisters, and teachers?
There is a shortage of cued speech interpreters, but that’s because of the lack of demand, as Hilary said in her blog. Keep in mind that cued speech started 41 years ago. The bulk of the children who used (which didn’t happen until much later) cued speech are now becoming adults. The national organization recognizes this and is beginning to work on addressing the issue.
Finally, you state that you think children should at least be exposed to fingerspelling before shifting to ASL. While, I don’t have academic research to support the following assumption, I speculate that many cuers may be able to learn ASL easier than their oral counterparts because they are already accustomed to visually communicating with others.
I wanted to correct you here. I learned Cued Speech when I was 2 years old and grew up around hearing peers (not many Cuers, but a lot of signers, where I’m from). As a result, I also learned how to lipread as my mother and father cued to me. I realised I was really proficient in lipreading when I was 8 years old and playing a board game called Read My Lips (geared towards EVERYONE, hearing or not) with my sister and I kept beating her. Took me a while to hone my lipreading skills but I am greatful for Cued Speech for providing me this additional skill.
You could say that Cued Speech makes the oral approach easier.
Z,
Many cue adults and professionals agree with you. For those who want to learn speech and lipreading, cued speech is an effective tool for the oral method. For more information about that, go to:
http://www.cuedspeech.org/sub/.....nviron.asp
Z,
I don’t deny that CS probably helps with lipreading skills (I’m a pretty darn good lipreader myself, but I’m not perfect!), but there’s no research proving that. Also, I would be hesitant in saying cueing helps with oral skills — that implies that cueing helps people speak better, and that’s not necessarily true. I know deaf cuers who don’t use their voices or who have struggled with being able to talk clearly. Their language is great, their lipreading skills are top-notch as well, but their own speaking skills are not great. And really, a lot of speech ability has to do with hearing level, too… not always, but that’s a factor.
Interesting. People can lip-read well without CS though. I don’t know CS, am profoundly deaf, and fluent in ASL. But I can lip-read decently enough. I think it’s a combination of several factors, but I would say one of those factors definitely include how proficient you are in English. So I can see where CS helps with that part.