Can Deaf Children Acquire English?: An Evaluation of Manually Coded English Systems in Terms of the Principles of Language Acquisition

Education of the deaf is often considered to be primarily concerned with the teaching of "language." Modern research and thinking in psycholinguistics suggest that language cannot be taught, but rather that linguistic development depends to a large extent on the manner in which children interact with their environment. Brennan (1975) has already evaluated the suitability of visually based sign languages for the purpose of language acquisition. While this author sees a place in the educational setting for both a sign language and a manually coded English (MCE) system, this paper confines itself to an examination of MCE systems in light of recent research into language acquisition. Finally, how these systems may be best employed in the field of education is discussed.