1. 1
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
Changing Languages and Identities
Kate Rowley, Indie Johal and
Bencie Woll

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Aim of project
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 To look at the language, identity and self
esteem of young, deaf people in different
educational settings
 Why?
 History of Deaf Education
 Does education have an impact on language
and identity?
 Implications of mainstream education – are
young, deaf people getting the support they
need to succeed?

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Participants
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 All participants 16-20 years of age
 11 participants attend 6th form at a deaf, oral
school
 7 participants attend various mainstream
colleges and use Communication Support
Workers (CSWs) to access lectures
 3 participants attended deaf, signing schools
(now attending mainstream colleges)
 More participants needed for latter 2 groups

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Interview and Assessment
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 Qualitative and Quantitative methodology
 Interview – background information and
questions linked to current and past
educational experiences
 Self Esteem Questionnaire
 Identity Questionnaire
 Language and Cognitive Assessments

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Self Esteem
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 There doesn’t seem to be any significant
differences between the three groups
 Those who attended a deaf, signing school had
high levels of self esteem however there are
only 3 people in this group

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Deaf Acculturation Scale
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 Questionnaire adapted from Maxwell-McCaw
and Zea (2011). Based on Glickman’s original
Questionnaire
 ‘Deaf Acculturation Scale’ (DAS)
Deaf acculturated
Hearing acculturated
Marginalised
Bicultural

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DAS results
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 Preliminary results – overall 8 DA, 6 HA, 4 BC
Deaf Oral No. of people
Deaf Acculturated 3
Hearing Acculturated 3
Bicultural 2
Deaf Signers
Deaf Acculturated 3
Hearing Acculturated 0
Bicultural 0
Deaf Mainstream
Deaf Acculturated 2
Hearing Acculturated 3
Bicultural 2
Deaf Family
Deaf Acculturated 4
Hearing Acculturated 1
Bicultural 2
Hearing Family
Deaf Acculturated 4
Hearing Acculturated 6
Bicultural 2

8. Language and Cognitive 8
Assessments
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
Language
British Sign Language Sentence Repetition Task
(BSL SRT)
Semantic fluency
Reading tests
Cognition
Weschler’s Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence
(WASI)

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BSL SRT and Reading Tests
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre

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Semantic Fluency
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 1 minute to produce a list of food and animal
items
 No significant differences – need more data
 Observations
– Mainstreamers used more fingerspelling
- Deaf oral group used single manual
letter signs
- Deaf signing group used more BSL signs

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Being with deaf peers
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 ‘I would like to ask you another question, if there was a perfect
way that you could receive your education, how would you like it
to be? Would you want to be with deaf people all the time or are
you happy now at your college? What do you think would be the
‘perfect education’?’ (interviewer)
 ‘Before I wanted just deaf people together but now I think a
mixture is better. I teach hearing people sign language and
perhaps in the future they will become CSWs. It may be more
difficult at University, I am not sure.’ (deaf mainstreamer, HF)
 ‘Why?’
 ‘Because maybe I will be the only deaf person at university.
There won’t be any other deaf people maybe.’ (deaf
mainstreamer, HF)

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Observations/comments
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
Friendships
 Most participants across the three groups have
deaf friends. Their closest friends are deaf.
 Some participants do have hearing friends
which are from the same college they attend.
 Very few participants have hearing friends
outside of college.
 Many communicate with hearing people
through lipreading, writing things down and
mobile phones

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Access
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 In the classroom, do you use DVDs,
computers, smartboards?
 ‘Yes but in my school it is mostly videos which
don’t have any subtitles. So the CSW has to
translate the videos. But some teachers, like
in geography, they will give me a transcript of
the video so I can watch and read. But this is
not easy, to be watching the video and reading
the transcript at the same time.’ (deaf
mainstreamer, aged 16)

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Observations/comments
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
Access
 Those in mainstream colleges don’t have full
access to DVDs. DVDs don’t have subtitles
and CSWs are not always able to translate
videos fully
 Those who attend a deaf school always have
full access to DVDs (no subtitles occasionally)
 Group discussions are sometimes a problem in
mainstream colleges. It is hard to translate
fast paced group discussions
 Sometimes information is missed

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Use of CSWs
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 ‘There are about 11 communication support
workers and most of them have level 1 or
level 2 signing. Some look like they have
achieved a level 3 but they haven’t done the
exam. This is a bit of a problem because most
of us ask for level 3 CSWs and they don’t have
any.’ (deaf mainstreamer, aged 16)

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Use of CSWs
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 ‘When they provide me with level 2 signers,
they don’t sign everything and I have to ask
my friends in the class for more information
and they explain to me what I have to do.’
(deaf mainstreamer, aged 16)

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Use of CSWs
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 Other mainstreamers have said that they are
happy with their CSWs and find them very
supportive and helpful
 Observation – many CSWs seem to help
students with their work (tutoring) as well as
translating in the classroom

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Conclusions
ESRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre
 Some patterns emerging
 Further analysis and data collection needed
 Follow-up interview in 5 years or interview
young, deaf adults from different educational
backgrounds
 Access in mainstream schools and colleges
need to be improved
 Looking solely at reading age, the educational
system is still failing deaf children and this is
happening today