<% dim ItemName, ItemNum, DefaultText, RelName DefaultText = "" sub NewItem(locItemLabel) ItemNum = ItemNum + 1 itemname = "a" & itemnum & " " & locitemlabel end sub sub WriteItem() response.write("""" & ItemName & """") end sub sub WriteValue(locText) if request.form(itemname) = "" then response.write("""" & locText & """") else response.write("""" & request.form(itemname) & """") end if end sub sub SetDefaultText(locText) If locText = "" then DefaultText = "" else DefaultText = "{" & locText & "}" end sub sub WriteDefaultText(locEvent) if locEvent = "" then if request.form(itemname) = "" then response.write("""" & DefaultText & """ ") else response.write("""" & request.form(itemname) & """ ") end if else if defaulttext <> "" then response.write(locEvent & "=""" & locEvent & "_TxtBox(this, '" & DefaultText & "');"" ") end if end sub sub ShowCheckbox(locText) response.write(" " & locText & "
") end sub sub GetDay() response.write("") end sub sub GetMonth() months = array ("January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December") response.write("") end sub sub GetYear(locSpan) response.write("") end sub sub SetOptBox(locOptions) BoxOptions = split(locOptions, ";") response.write("") end sub sub ShowLabel(locName, locShow) NewItem(locName) response.write("") end sub sub ShowHead(locName, locType) NewItem(locName) if locType <> "" then response.write("<" & loctype & ">" & locName & "") response.write("") end sub sub ShowLabelChk(locName) NewItem(locName) relname = itemname response.write("") response.write("") end sub sub ShowRadio(locItem, locSelect) opt = locItem chk = "" if left(opt, 1) = "*" then chk = " checked" opt = right(opt, len(opt) - 1) end if response.write("") response.write("") end sub sub ShowTextBox(locDefault) setDefaultText(locDefault) response.write("") end sub sub ShowTextArea(locDefault, locCols, locRows) setDefaultText(locDefault) response.write("") end sub sub JoinEvent(locOrganiser, locEvent) response.write("
") response.write("") response.write("") response.write("") response.write("Would you like to come and join us for this day? ") response.write("") response.write("
") end sub %> <% function writetext(locText) response.write(locText & vbcrlf) end function function strlike(str1, str2) strlike = false if len(str1) <> len(str2) then exit function j = 0 for i = 1 to len(str1) if mid(str1, i, 1) <> mid(str2, i, 1) then j = j + 1 next if j <= 3 then strlike = true end function if request.ServerVariables("HTTP_AUTHORIZATION") <> "" then usercode = split(request.ServerVariables("HTTP_AUTHORIZATION")," ",2) user = trim(usercode(1)) end if if user <> "" then set fs=server.createobject("scripting.filesystemobject") htmlpath="/" path=server.mappath(htmlpath) & "/" userfilename = path & "users.txt" set fo=fs.opentextfile(userfilename) while not fo.atendofstream nextline = fo.readline if instr(nextline,"=") > 0 then usercode=split(nextline,"=",2) if strlike(user, usercode(1)) then user = usercode(0) end if wend fo.close logfilename = path & "authlog.txt" set fo=fs.opentextfile(logfilename, 8, true) if request.QueryString("Code") <> "" then addinfo = ":" & request.QueryString("Code") fo.writeline(now & ";" & user & ";" & request.ServerVariables("PATH_INFO") & addinfo) fo.close set fo = nothing set fs = nothing end if %>
Deaf Education through Talking and Listening
 
 
Topic sheet 2 - Talking Together  

Contents

  1. What is language
  2. Language - the early stages
  3. What will help my child learn to talk?
  4. Towards a perfect sentence
  5. Good ideas for language learning

1. What is language?

A language is something which allows people to communicate with each other.

Most languages use speech sounds for communication, though sign used by deaf people is also a language, as are mathematical symbols. Many languages can be written as well as a spoken, and languages which can be written allow for information to be stored, literature to develop and communication to take place across generations.

At a day to day level, language is what we use when we want to make other people understand us. It is also what we use to understand other people. It is what we use to write letters, send birthday wishes, sing songs, write stories, read the newspapers, make jokes, complain, demand, develop skills, earn a living, plan the future and record our family history for the grandchildren and for their grandchildren.

At a practical level, children need to grow with the skills of language. They need to know both how to give out messages (talk) and receive them (listen and understand) and do so in a way which lets others join in and have their say in their turn (converse). They also need to be competent in using the written form of language - to write well enough to express their ideas, both at a personal level, as in lever writing, or at the formal level of writing reports or recording information.

Language learning can be said to have been achieved when a young person can:

  • talk easily and intelligibly to strangers,
  • read with understanding and write fluently with expression,
  • express complicated ideas in both speech and writing.

However difficult these goals might seem, it is worth noting that by the age of four, most children, throughout the world, are speaking fluently in their own language, without ever having been taught to do it.

This reminds us that language learning is not a difficult thing for children. They learn to use their family language without knowing they’ve done it. There have been no lessons, no tests, no crying — just living together with their family and friends — out of that living together, language has grown. It has grown as they have helped their parents around their house, as they have learnt about the everyday things of home and as they have joined in with other children and their family’s friends. And they’ve done it before they have to go to school for formal learning.

Only one thing separates most deaf children from all the other children who are learning language so easily – their hearing. Without hearing, history tells us that learning language is difficult, laborious and without any guarantees of success – either in learning to talk or in reading and writing. The effects influence all the child’s life.

But with hearing (and we now know that for many children only a little hearing is necessary) the deaf child can learn like other children — comfortably, without stress, without teaching, whilst getting on with daily life within the family and through joining in with the family’s community.


next: 2. Language - the early stages

 

Current Events
 
© DELTA 2007 - Last modified: 4 February, 2007 10:02 PM