Somewhat Silent

Problems with Linguistics, Grammer, Spelling, English in general?

by lette @ 2:53 am. Filed under Thoughts, Accessibility, Discussion

I just want to know if im alone here, I know that people who have been born Deaf, have a clear disadvantage in learning Language and linguistic techniques, as they have never heard the language.

But I wasnt born Deaf, It started when I was 7, waaaay past the first 3 years of my life which apparently is the learning curve of Language unerstanding, but my English skills are terrible! Namely my spelling, and I just cant get around it, my grammer can be very bad also and my punctuation is all over the place, I put it down to my hearing difficulty, because I had real difficulty in primary school after my hearing problem was first dectected, But I dont know should I blame my deafness, I have a tendancy to spell things according to they way they sound to me, which because of my deafness is already distorted.

Even if I go off and learn the spellings over and over, I will eventually resort back to the bad way of spelling them again after a while! I dont know what it is!

I found this link on Deaf Linguistic Experience http://www.ericdigests.org/1993/deaf.htm which explains a fair bit in our favour with reguards to having difficulty in the field of language!�

Have any of you a problem like this?

[link]

7 Responses to “Problems with Linguistics, Grammer, Spelling, English in general?”

Sanctum1972 :
July 8th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Well, LetteMo…

I was born deaf due to congenital defect..causing auditory nerve damage resulting in severe hearing loss. And although, I was initially taught ASL very briefly until being placed in a oral/audist environment in the 1970s-80s. It was there that they taught us how to speak and use ASL less at the time and throughout high school (they had two programs that shared the same area in the city and are inter-connected).

I think, for me, I was fortunate to have some hearing left on my one ear to pick up the sounds and read lips while growing up watching cartoons (making me the geek of that class and ahead of their time on anime/manga)…and while I’ve noticed some deaf students have had grammatical difficulties, I can say that deafness does play a part in hindering our ability to ‘translate’ what is being said or retaining the information into our head trying to make sense of what’s conveyed.

Almost like looking at Egyptian hieroglyphics and still not making sense of it. Or better speaking from ‘broken up’ consonants or linking verbs that make up the whole construct of a sentence.

However, there are a few of us who are fortunate enough to have taken English courses in a hearing classroom that put us ahead of the others in the development of our communicative skills. And those who remained being taught in the lower grade level English courses.

For instance, an 11th grade deaf student could or would most likely be taught 7th/8th grade English..maybe 9th. As a Junior, I was put in a 10th grade Literature class. It was right after high school when my ability to write was steadily improved throughout community college and art school.

Of course, when one gets older..that becomes a slight challenge carrying some rustiness. Although, the trick behind it all is to…….read, read, and read. The more you read, the more you can assimilate the diction and concepts….like a Borg.
katie (User Verified) :
July 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am
SHOOT. I accidentally closed my browser and lost my entire reply. Here’s the essence of what it said:

(Hey y’all! Long time no see!)

Lette, I was also born deaf- my hearing loss wasn’t noticed until I was about two. Any language difficulties I have are exclusively with pronunciation and voicing my thoughts clearly when talking. I think it does make a difference that I was mainstreamed for my entire education. In any case, Adam’s right- it all comes down to reading, reading, and more reading.

I also think word-play simply comes easier to some people than others. I have hearing friends (without learning disabilities, mind you) who are abominable spellers.
katie (User Verified) :
July 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I should probably also add that my mom’s a high school English teacher. Whenever I screw up my grammar, she’s all over it.
lette :
July 12th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
well I read a lot, there is nothing wrong with my understanding or voicing my english its my written english thats an abomination!!!
athina (User Verified) :
July 13th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Hi Lette! Have you read about dyslexia? I being a communication
arts teacher have observed keenly your difficulty with spellings in your
posts here and even at flickr. As far as I know there are areas in the
brain assigned for each talent or ability we show. Those with dyslexia
have some problem with the area of their brain assigned to reading,
writing and spelling. I have a brother who has normal hearing, is good
in math, the arts, practical skills, business acumen, you name it he
has it. As in he rocks. Except that he can’t figure out spelling. I
think you should research dyslexia as there are courses you can enrol
in to correct your spelling difficulty.
lette :
July 14th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Thats really interesting, as I have HUGE problems when it comes to Math, I literally pull a blank around Numbers, its horrible I even start to feel Panicy, Im wondering if I do have a problem with letters and numbers?? Hmmm, where do you go to get properly diagnosed Dyslexia (now thats a horrible word to spell!!)
like I said before, my spoken English is next to perfect, but spellings are so so sooooooo Bad!!
katie (User Verified) :
July 16th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Hey Lette,

It looks like the International Dyslexia Association has some information that might help: http://www.interdys.org/ including “Common Signs of Dyslexia (in adults): http://www.interdys.org/servlet/compose?section_id=5&page_id=44

Does your university have a department that deals with learning disabilities at all? They might be a good resource.

Katie