ASL 1 Class Packet - Bakersfield College

17. Oralism: This is a method of instruction wherein a teacher mouths every word to a
Deaf person and asks the Deaf person to learn to speak normally in spite of his inability
to hear himself. A product of the Victorian age—and the preferred method of
instruction in most countries around the world—it was standard procedure in the
U.S. until the 1970s. There are schools that practice this method to this day. Many
Deaf people are raised and educated by the oral method. A vast majority of them
turn to ASL at some point in their lives. I have never known a Deaf person to grow
up signing and later become oral.
Pidgin Signed English: See “MCE”
SEE: See “MCE”
Signed English: See “MCE”
Signer: Someone who signs. Often you will see someone signing for a Deaf person in a
classroom or at a performance. While that individual is often referred to as a
“signer,” he is actually an interpreter/transliterators. Interpreters actually interpret
from one language into another language, ASL to English for example. Transliterators
translate from one language to another form of the same language, spoken English
to signed English, for example.
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