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JANIE SIMMONS esearch on American Sign Language and the deaf community establishes the fact that the majority of deaf adults and deaf children of deaf community members share their own language and culture (Stokoe, 1978; Baker and Cokely, 1980; Wilbur, 1988). Deaf children of hearing parents also have gained access to the deaf community at some point in their lives, primarily through residential schools (Padden and Humphries, 1988). Nevertheless, the notion that deaf children are indeed linguistically and culturally unique in ways comparable to hearing minority children is still met with a great deal of resistance in educational circles (Lane, 1984; Reagan, 1985). Theoretical and pedagogical models in deaf education are derived largely from pathological views of deafness-views that define deaf children as "hearing-handicapped " rather than as members of a culturally and linguistically unique group. Furthermore , traditional explanations for the persistent failure of deaf children to achieve on par with their hearing peers focus on the deficiency of hearing impairment itself-a state internal to the deaf child. Therefore, these models reinforce the view that the inadequacy of deaf children's overall academic development can be attributed to the fact of deafness itself. They do not take into account inappropriate teaching philosophies and methods, or other historical and social factors. Consequently, the pathological model poses a serious threat to the development of new approaches to teaching deaf children. A number of researchers have challenged the more traditional views of deafness (Vernon and Makowsky, 1969; Charrow and Wilbur, 1975; Baker and Battison, 1980; Woodward, 1982; Lane, 1984; Reagan, 1988; Padden and Humphries, 1988). Their work has helped legitimize the efforts of deaf individuals throughout the last century who have opposed the pathological model and declared their language and culture as fit for human purposes as any oral language and culture. Still, very little socially based research has been undertaken in the field of deaf education. In this paper I will briefly outline a broad set of recommendations drawn from research on hearing, minority populations. I believe these recommendations hold promise for the development of a more theoretically sound and culturally appropriate language arts curriculum in programs for deaf children. 600 THE DEAF WAY ~ Education Socially Based Approaches and Recommendations Socially based perspectives stress the contextuaL socially produced nature of meaning -its negotiation by speakers in context over time. All deaf children, simply by being born into the human community, are social beings and makers of meaning. They have personal and cultural histories that bear upon their experience of growing up as deaf individuals in families-both hearing and deaf-from various linguistic, ethnic, class, and cultural backgrounds. The majority of deaf children in the United States enter school with little or no exposure to native American Sign Language (ASL) users. Therefore, socially based approaches suggest the need, at the very least, to use, validate, and expand upon whatever communication methods these young children do use to make meaning and act upon their surroundings. At most, these approaches stress the need to create completely accessible linguistic and educational environments for all deaf children. Thus, it is necessary to consider the ways in which the majority of deaf children-those with hearing parents-achieve communication through practical strategies more dependent on extralinguistic context and the negotiation of shared meanings than on language (Gee, 1986a). This communication style does not lend itself easily to the task of becoming literate in yet another language-English. Young deaf children of hearing parents do communicate with their parents, siblings , and other deaf peers, even though their command of a formal language system is not so developed as that of mainstream and hearing minority children. Nevertheless, the essential questions that need to be addressed by researchers and practitioners are basically the same: How do these children make meanings? What discourse styles and strategies do they use? How did they acquire these practices? Are they truly lacking in communication? And finally, what needs to be done to improve their communication skills and academic development? These questions remain unanswered (and usually unasked) as the child begins school. There, the child is required to learn the English language, relatively unencountered up until then and difficult to access given the hearing impairment. I will now suggest five very broad recommendations based on theoretical and pedagogical approaches, which have either proven successful or promise to be successful in the education of hearing minority children. 1. Exploit the full range of purposes for which language is used in any given speech community...

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