Bilingual Deaf Education Takes Root in China

by Li Xue

Replanting a potted plant is a long and tedious process. In his book, “Mirror of Flowers”, the 17th century horticulturist Chen Haozi recorded minutely what it takes to do it right: choosing the right environment, pruning, replacing the soil and watering the plant. Only if the replanting process is done with the utmost care will the “courtyard bustle with flowers”. In a similar way, replanting “European-grown” bilingual deaf education into Chinese soil is a major task. Over the last four years, strong efforts have been made to introduce Amity’s SigAm Bilingual Deaf Education Program to eight different deaf schools in Jiangsu, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Now Amity’s efforts start showing signs of success.

It was in 1995 that a small team of Amity staff first learned about the ideas of bilingual education in deaf education – a cutting-edge teaching method, which involves the acquisition by deaf children of sign language as their first language. The encounter between Amity and bilingual education took place during a visit by an English PhD student who wrote a thesis on deaf education. What followed was the introduction of bilingual education to a pre-school class at the Nanjing Deaf School. Experts from England were invited to visit the Nanjing training classes. The local teachers of the deaf were asked to participate in designing the experiment and later evaluating it. The seemingly easy experiment in Nanjing turned out to become a very special ten-year lesson in contextualization. After the year 2000, Amity started a cooperation with the Norwegian Signo Foundation in order to expand the scope of the bilingual education program. Finally, in April 2004, five schools in Jiangsu joined the program and in 2006, four deaf schools in Sichuan and Guizhou followed. As was to be expected, the introduction of fundamentally new teaching methods met some resistance.

Challenges

A principal of one of the project schools, for example, complained: “It is one thing to see the children in the project making very quick progress, but it is another to see the authorities not appreciating it. When the leaders of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation came to our school for inspection, they watched our bilingual class where the children use sign language. The inspectors said that what they saw was just empty gesticulating and feet paddling. They left in a huff.”

A retired high-ranking cadre from the provincial special education office said: “The curriculum reform in 2000 proposed to make teaching more student-centered. But strong opposition emerged when such ideas were put forward. In the end, we had no choice but to adopt a twin-track approach in special education: the students were now seen as the ‘main body’, whereas the teachers were considered the guides.” According to a local executive of the Amity project, “originally, deaf people didn’t take part in the translation training classes. Whose language were they supposed to translate anyway? There were no incentives for the officials to spend any money on deaf people. We offered to provide teachers to the deaf, free of charge, for the training classes, but until now, we haven’t received any reply.” … All of those who are trying to push the case feel to a certain extent helpless. It is easier to claim that the difficulties arise from the behavior of certain work units or people who are in charge than to say that they are the result of certain die-hard traditions.

Liu Xiaofeng, the director of the Institute of Comparative Religious Studies at the Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, has pointed out that, for nearly a century, the evolution of the current educational system in China has been a process of remolding the imperial examination system into a more “westernized” model [Liu Xiaofeng (2007): "Individual Academic Pursuit between National Power and Social Right", "Jian Jin Han Zhi" (Picking All the Cold Branches), Hua Xia Printing Press, p 6.]. But when western learning came to China, this did not cause a radical break with the traditions of the school system. Western influence only changed specific knowledge-related subjects. The (ill-)famed college entrance examination (gaokao) as it is used today is the direct descendant of the 1300-year-old imperial examination system. The promise given in the Analects of Confucius that “a student who has completed his studies will assume the duties of a government official” (Lunyu, book 19, chapter 13) is still the driving force behind the exam frenzy. Passing exams brings people closer to fulfilling their dreams of gaining a higher position in the social hierarchy than others.

However, the pursuit of excellence comes at a price. Countless students spend their youth doing nothing but “eating the bitter food of learning” (as a Chinese saying goes: ???????). In such a learning environment, which is dominated by fierce competition and little concern for students’ personal feelings, it is not surprising that people adhere to traditional, teacher-centered methods. How does bilingual education fit into this system? Could it act as a pioneer in China’s special education system, giving students more freedom and reducing the pressure?

Invite academe

During the initial phase of Amity’s program, deaf education experts, scholars and researchers from various academic institutions (among them the University of Oslo, the University of Stavanger, Fudan University in Shanghai and Nanjing Normal University) were invited to join. The experts now meet on an annual basis in order to discuss latest developments, audit classes of deaf children and advise the schools involved. At the same time, the scholars are able to collect data for their own research. In this way, Amity hopes to lay a foundation, both theoretical and practical, for implementing bilingual deaf education.

Involve deaf people

In China, the majority of deaf people usually have a low educational level. Most of them graduated from junior middle school, some from senior middle school. Hardly any deaf people hold university degrees. Unfortunately, this typically low level of education keeps deaf people from recognizing that there is a social “problem of the deaf” and consolidates the lack of skills and knowledge acquired by this group. It also creates a language barrier between deaf and hearing people and makes it hard for the deaf to find jobs.

Amity staffer Dai Manli teaches sign language at Amity headquarters.

Amity’s program is trying to reverse these trends. The success of the SigAm Bilingual Deaf Education Program lies in the fact that deaf people have participated in it on the side of the experts. The schools participating in the program hired teachers who are themselves deaf in order to create a natural learning environment in the classroom. Since students can only use sign language to communicate with their deaf teachers, they learn sign language quickly. Nonetheless, this method needs some getting used to.

Stir controversial discussions

Deaf teachers tend to ask questions such as: “Won’t it adversely affect children’s overall language levels when we use sign language in the classroom as language of instruction?” Some teachers say: “In bilingual education, sign language is the first language which deaf children learn. Chinese is only their second language. However, it’s obviously necessary that deaf students learn Chinese well. Isn’t this just like studying English as a second language? Even college students know their second language on a comparatively superficial level. How much worse will it be when primary-school deaf children learn Chinese as a second language!” Such concerns and doubts take up a lot of the discussion time among the deaf teachers. But exchanging views and disagreeing is part of Amity’s program. Discussing about sign language acquisition and bilingual education is not just a discourse on how the public can be involved: it is first and foremost a platform for deaf people, where they can learn how to make their voices heard in public and thus become part of mainstream society.

Involve the public

Amity is now four years into the program and every school has made its own unique experiences. Some schools even went as far as to expand the Bilingual Deaf Education Program by adding their individual concepts, including exchanges with other schools, cooperations with hospitals or sign-language training classes for the public – parents, teachers and students from ordinary schools. All of these activities have helped to introduce the bilingual concept to the general public. During a seminar on bilingual deaf education held in Chengdu at the beginning of this year, teachers and principals were constantly engaged in discussions about new teaching methods, sign language and cooperation between the hearing and the deaf. Those who eventually profited most from these discussions were the deaf children.

People from all walks of life join Amity’s sign language classes.

During the seminar we attended a class of pre-school children who take part in the program. The children used sign language to chat among themselves, but when a teacher asked a question they answered confidently and happily – something which is seldom seen in Chinese schools, where discipline has a high priority. Even when the teachers had not explained things clearly and in detail (e.g. when they had not made it clear what exactly happens to the tails of tadpoles when they develop into frogs), to our surprise, the small students were able to explain it to us during the interviews after class. A four-year-old girl even brought her picture book to show me the signs for all 16 animals in the book. It was wonderful to look at her hands while she used sign language.

Build civil society

Bilingual deaf education stresses the development of deaf people, not just their language skills. It also attaches great importance to whether the teaching methods are teacher-centered or student-centered. Bilingual deaf education studies and discusses the ways how teachers and students interact and how communication between students works. This method is not just used to improve the language skills of students, but, more importantly, to promote democratic thinking in education. Students should learn independent thinking, explore creative learning methods and become aware of their own learning process, because this generation will determine the society of tomorrow.

Developing bilingual deaf education still has a long way to go. More deaf schools should introduce bilingualism; more deaf people should take part in such programs. High-quality deaf education should be made available. Better policies should be introduced. NGOs may play a leading role in introducing new methods, and public involvement should be admitted and encouraged. All these efforts will make it possible for bilingual deaf education to take root in China.