Lessons for BSL

Working with a community in the situation of deaf people has certain similarities to working with the Indians in Brazil. It requires a commitment not to education and to service provision, but a commitment to learn and to work alongside. When the deaf person meets a hearing person and does not use "BSL", he or she is reacting to a system which is internalised - hearing people value speech above all else, you are hearing, therefore I should try to speak. Overcoming this for the hearing person, is not hard in that it does not need excessive energy. It requires only openness and time. Learning and sharing occur when the attitudes are common to both parties, where a commitment to being together is evident.

However, the situation on the deaf side is more complex. Since time began for the deaf community, it has been clear that the language of power is spoken language. Just as trading natives in the Far East created a pidgin to deal with the dominating colonialists, so deaf people find themselves having to work in a pidgin[i] situation. It is natural. However, it has become in the deaf situation, a major concession by the hearing people. As a way of recognising you, we will adopt your pidgin, (because it will help you come closer to our language). But it is not clear that there is a real recognition of deafness or of deaf people. Nevertheless, deaf people because of their history, may well believe the mixed language will enhance their competence in the majority language, but it is hardly liberating.

The outcome is that deaf people will often see the mixed language - SSE as being a step forward. In Freire’s terms this would be a further acceptance of oppression.

[i] Pidgin

Pidgin, language based on another language, but with a sharply curtailed vocabulary (often 700 to 2000 words) and grammar; native to none of its speakers; and used as a lingua franca, or common language, in a region where different peoples mix but have no common language. Among languages that have given rise to pidgins are English, French, Spanish, Italian, Zulu, and Chinook.

In a pidgin, words may change meaning; the English word belong becomes blong (“is”) in Chinese Pidgin and bilong (“of”) in Melanesian Pidgin. Many concepts are expressed by phrases, for example, lait bilong klaut (“lightning,” literally “light of cloud”) in Melanesian Pidgin. Borrowings from other languages may be added; Melanesian Pidgin, for instance, has two forms of the word we: mipela, “I and others but not you” (from mi, “I,” plus plural ending -pela, derived from “fellow”); and yumi, “we, including you.”

If a pidgin survives for several generations, it may displace other languages and become the tongue of its region; it is then called a creole, and its vocabulary is gradually reexpanded.

What are the lessons for BSL learning?