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5:5 Wednesday, May 21, 2003
A Worlds
Eye View of Deafness
Exploring International Deaf Communities
The challenges faced by deaf people in Sweden are quite different from those
in Nicaragua and are set on a common global stage, explains Leila Monaghan and
Constanze Schmaling, two of the contributors of
Many Ways to
Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities edited by Monaghan,
Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham H. Turner. In this volume, twenty-four international
scholars have contributed their findings from studying Deaf communities in
Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Taiwan, Russia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Great
Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the United
States. Sixteen chapters consider the various antecedents of each countrys
native signed language, taking into account the historical background for their
development and also the effects of foreign influences and changes in
philosophies by the larger, dominant hearing societies. Key themes of this
volume include how Deaf communities have survived despite opposition by those
who thought and think that Deaf people should not be allowed to have their own
separate communities outside of hearing cultures, how forms of education
interact with and are reflections of larger sociocultural processes, and how
signed languages are crucial parts of Deaf communities everywhere. The
diversity of background and training among the contributors to Many Ways to
Be Deaf distinguishes it as a genuine and unique multicultural examination
of the myriad manifestations of being Deaf in a diverse world. Gain more insight
about the differences in the Taiwanese culture by reading chapter
twelve, The Chiying School of Taiwan: A Foreigners
Perspective, and receive a 20% discount
off the regular price when you
order
Many Ways to Be Deaf.
Another showcase of international Deaf diversity can be found in The Deaf
Way II Anthology:
A Literary
Collection by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Writers.
In celebration of the 2002 international festival of Deaf people at Gallaudet
University, editor Tonya M. Stremlau assembled a remarkable compilation of
poetry, essays, short stories, and one play. These fascinating works were penned
by 16 international writers, each of whom is deaf or hard of hearing. Many of the writers of
The Deaf Way II Anthology
are well-known for their past publications and have
many different things to say about life as a deaf person, yet their experiences
are common to deaf people everywhere,
comments Stremlau in her introduction.
They tell of being isolated at (hearing) family dinners or of not knowing what
is announced over a public address system. They tell of what it is like to be a
deaf writer, including dealing with expectations that they cant write because
they are deaf.
Read works
by two of the recognized United States writers, Christopher Jon Heuer and
Raymond Luczak, and
order
The Deaf Way II Anthology.
Cambridge University Presss
Studies in Second Language Acquisition journal lauds the contributors of Sociolinguistic
Variation in American Sign Language saying,
Based on seven years of research spread across the United States,
including data collected from seven sites, Sociolinguistic Variation in
American Sign Language is a major contribution to the growing literature on
the linguistics and sociolinguistics of ASL. It seeks to
provide a
comprehensive description of the variables and constraints at work in sign
language variation (p. xv), building on the existing
linguistic literature dealing with ASL. It succeeds admirably, if not in
providing the final word on these complex issues, then by offering not only
fascinating insights into sign language variation but also an empirical database
that is unmatched in its depth and breadth in the field.
You can
read the review in its entirety, as well as an
excerpt from
chapter one
and order Sociolinguistic
Variation in American Sign Language
here.
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