Chapter 36: The Pressure to Speak

I wonder if it is universally accepted that too much time is spent on speech in Deaf curriculum and if anyone has not only suggested changing the curriculum  but actually drawn up new ideas.  The more I read, the more I wonder why it is a skill they insist on teaching instead of one they present the option of teaching since so few Deaf individuals choose to use it once they get out of school.   I don't understand why anyone would be rude to a Deaf individual who did choose to speak.  After the section about Marlee Matlin, I watched some video-clips of her on youtube.  

"Matlin has always used her voice, enjoys doing so, feels confident enough to take speaking roles, and stays in training...'If Marlee can talk so nicely, why can't you?'"--pg. 210-211, p. 4

What I found was not what I had expected to find after reading the quote.  I watched four video clips about Marlee Matlin; two were interviews, one was her Oscar acceptance speech, and one was a scene from Desperate House Wives.  In both of the interviews and in the Oscar speech, Matlin only signed (all three times with male interpreters, which was kind of confusing).  In the Desperate House Wives scene she spoke about half of the time and had her daughter on the show interpret for the the other half.  Her speech was still obviously that of a Deaf person.  The way they presented her in the book made me expect someone who would always use her voice and whose voice would sound like that of a hearing person.

I wonder if Bernard Bragg's mom got annoyed at him for drilling her until she could make the "k" sound.  That type of behavior (insisting on perfection) sounds an awful lot like how the authors described the speech pathologists of the old days.

Chapter 35: Different Classifications

Different labels for people with varying degrees of hearing loss and varying means of preferred communication is not something I had thought about before.  The category of "hearing-in-the-head" surprised me.

"Strictly oral-deaf people who don't know how to sign, refuse to learn even the rudiments, and may have a political bias against the Deaf community."--pg. 207, p. 2

Disliking others who are in their position of not being able to hear and stubbornly refusing to learn an easier way for them to communicate seems like it would make life difficult and lonely.

I am surprised they did not press hearing people not using their voices around Deaf people more, but simply noted that some do not.  In class we have been taught that it is quite inconsiderate to speak when Deaf people are present because it makes it where they cannot understand the conversation.

Chapter 34: Deaf Speech

I was surprised to learn that pretty much all Deaf people can speak up to a certain point.

"Virtually all deaf adults have had a heavy dose of speech and auditory training...Oral training is part of the TC curriculum."--pg. 202, p. 3

I do not think I would have had the patience to learn to speak if I was Deaf.  I am surprised it is a required part of the curriculum since a significant portion of the deaf community seems to prefer to not use speech.  I think it would take a lot of courage to use speech being Deaf without being subconscious about what people might think of your speech.  I think it would be rude to ask someone to use speech more in your workplace if ASL is there chosen means of communication.  The person who wrote in seems to feel like the coworker needs to meet him half-way; he learned some signs, so he thinks the coworker should use some English.  Just hire a translator and focus on your job instead of trying to change your coworker.

Chapter 33: The Trouble with Speech Pathologists

Before taking ASL I, I did not know that there was disagreement as to whether or not Deaf people should be taught to sign.  I had also always assumed that speech pathologists were for children who had trouble speaking clearly for reasons other than hearing loss.  I can understand now why Deaf individuals would resent people who think that speech is superior to signing and especially people who inflict physical punishments on students who do not pronounce sounds correctly.  It seems as though the authors must have had negative experiences with speech pathologist and other such professionals as they spend quite a bit more of the chapter focusing on the negative than the positive attributes of people who go into these professions.

I wonder why some people think speech is superior to signing.  In the story of the graduate student who was working with a graduate speech pathologist student to compensate for his or her hearing and speech-skill loss, the student he or she was working with did not approve of Deaf children signing.

"...I noticed that she had a look of grim disapproval on her face.  She was actually frowning!...All she could say was, 'They should be using more speech.'"--pg. 198, p. 4 and 5

Why would she care how a group of people she will never have to interact with communicate with each other, especially when no one involved in the conversation would have been able to hear speech anyway?  I do not understand why people cannot mind their own business instead of trying to push their opinions on aspects of life they cannot relate to on others who actually understand those aspects of life.

Chapter 32: Speechreading

I know a woman who is Deaf but is very confident with speaking as well as speechreading.  Before I knew any sign language I thought it was very cool that she could do that and since I had talked to her before I knew she was Deaf, I never did anything weird and exaggerated while talking to her.  I have seen her one since I started ASL I and I wasn't sure what to do.  She is so confident in speechreading that I wasn't sure if it would offend her if I attempted to sign to her.  Because I was embarrassed by my indecision I didn't make as much eye contact as usual which I now know after reading this chapter was a bad idea.

"People who nervously...take frequent furtive glances to the side, breaking eye contact, drive us crazy."--pg. 193, p. 1

 I find it strange that before knowing anything about ASL or Deaf culture I was completely comfortable communicating with her, but now I am not sure what to do and embarrassed.  I suppose I should just ask her which she would prefer next time I see her.  One of my mom's cousins is Deaf and he only uses speechreading.  I have only seen him once but I remember being very impressed that he could understand people just from the shape of their mouths.  I now know that is more than just lipreading; associational cues are used, as well.

Chapter 31: More Resources

This is the first I have heard of a hearing child with Deaf parents having issues with English, though it makes perfect sense.

"The little boy speaks okay, but sometimes he reverts to an English version of the ASL sentence structure."--pg. 187, p. 1

I wonder if this is typical and how long it takes for such children to reach the English-speaking level of their peers.  I knew a girl in middle school and high school with Deaf parents and she spoke normally.  My mom had her little sister in first grade and she spoke normally, as well.

The authors sure do like listing off resources.  I notice that all of the materials they listed were published between the late 80's and early 2000's.  Were the 90's an important time for Deaf research?

Quiz: Chapters 16-30

I answered all of the questions correctly.  I think this information stuck with me because most of it had some sort of emotional/opinionated aspect to it as road blocks to Deaf people's maximum potential were really highlighted in this section.