Sign language can help children learn spoken language

     

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 Sign language, for a long time, was being used only by deaf people, thus making them isolated from society. Now this is no longer the case. Sign language has recently been  implemented as a teaching method for children who can hear as well. Research has shown that incorporating sign language in a primary classroom may significantly increase the language learning process. To be more precise, it can enhance children’s vocabulary, understanding mode, spelling and writing.

       Some people may wonder how sign language, which involves only signs and gestures, can help in learning spoken language. Wurm (1986) explains that young children see letters and words abstractly – as symbols without meaning. Thus, pairing a sign with a word, children can more easily understand the meaning as the word becomes more concrete.  Reynolds (1995) develops this idea claiming that a mix of sign and spoken languages or as he calls it ‘multimodal language’ makes learning language fruitful because tactile channels combine with auditory and visual modalities.

       Learning sign and spoken languages in tandem can provide a richer language ground for brain growth and development (Daniels, 2001). This happens because sign language affects Broca’s area which is responsible for controlling skillful hand movement and inner speech. More importantly, more and more research (Raymond, 1985; Goode, Feekes, & Shawd, 1993-1994) shows that students who learn to read words along with signs tend to retain remarkably more vocabulary than their peers with a traditional manner of schooling. In other words, the visual representation of a word enables children to recall words more effectively.   

       

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Interestingly, teachers use sign language to improve children’s spelling and writing. They resort to the help of fingerspelling (the spelling out of words using a different hand shape to represent each letter) when children ask the spelling of particular words.  This method enables children to correctly write the letters “b” and “d”, which are often reversed and cause confusion, since the children see the correct way the letter faces while looking at the sign (Felzer, 2004). As this approach proved to increase children’s test scores, it piques profound interest in researchers and educators. To illustrate, Felzer (2004) found out that the results of a test checking the spelling in learning disabled students dramatically increased from  25%-46% before learning to fingerspell the words to 56%-90% after incorporating sign language in the lessons.

       To sum up, incorporating sign language in primary classrooms has surprising language benefits.  The combination of modalities involved in signing contributes significantly to the reinforcement of language acquisition. As sign language embraces visual representation, by forming ‘pictures’ in children’s brain, it makes them retain more vocabulary than their peers. In addition, it enables children to understand words faster as well as makes their writing and spelling skills stronger. Incorporating sign language into mainstream school not only has benefits for hearing students, but also has the possibility of including deaf students into the larger society.     

References

Daniels, M. (2001). Dancing with words: Signing for hearing children’s literacy. Westport, Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey.

Felzer, L. (2004). Research on how signing helps hearing children learn to read. MBR Beginning Reading Program. Retrieved March 27, 2004 from http://www.csupomona.edu/~ljfelzer/research.html

Goode, L., Feekes, J., & Shawd, B. (1993-1994). Let your fingers do the talking, hands-on language learning through signing. Childhood Education, 81-83.

Raymond, W. (Spring 1985). Using sign language for teaching sight words. Teaching Exceptional Children. 214-217.

Reynolds, K.(1995). Sign language and hearing preschoolers: An ideal match. Childhood Education, 72, 2-6.

Wurm, T. (1986). Teaching sight words with sign language. Reading Teacher, 39(7), 744-745.