Audrey Loudenback

Testing for Stone Deaf Play, Act One

Test for naturalness:

A mono-lingual English speaker watched the video with a transcription of the spoken text. He is around 55 years old, does not know any ASL, doesn’t have knowledge of Deaf history, completed a Master’s Degree in Education and is working professional in a college setting.

He did not view the source text. I feel that some of his comments are because the video he viewed was of the translation and he didn’t have a visual connection with the source and what actually occurring on stage. I asked him to give any feedback he had on the naturalness of the spoken English, both positive and negative.

The American School for the Deaf was established and following its success, many other schools for the deaf were opened, but the struggle continued on which way to educate deaf children. Three different issues arose in the debate about educating deaf children which were: methodical signing, teaching English and natural signs. [All1]

Methodical signs must be used in school. Children need to be thought to think in English word order.[All2]

Methodical sign with confuse children.

[All3]

But if there is a sign for every word, students will learn the appropriate order of English.

The natural way of signing will spread when it’s used in the deaf community and in teaching children.

If deaf people used their so called natural language they will be condemned to a life of confusion and poverty.

Teachers will try all sorts of different ways to educate deaf children, but they will fail because signing is their natural way of… of … laughter

Grrrrr![All4]

Phew, that debate continued until 1835 finally ASL became the only way to educate deaf children. The teaching of ASL progressed and deaf student led a successful life, that’s how it should be.

[All5]

Hey your living room is really nice. I was looking around at your house and all the pictures, it’s really cool.[All6]

Thanks. Is this your coffee?[All7]

Yeah it is. Oh by the way I opened a café, near here and uh it’s been really successful.[All8]

Yeah I go there all the time and the food is great it’s a wonderful place to meet deaf people and it’s just a really incredible experience.[All9]

Oh I agree. It’s a great place to meet people. I also want to open a new café at Martha’s Vineyard.

Oh yeah I’ve been there about 4 or 5 times.[All10]

Martha’s Vineyard? What’s that?[All11]

Uh it’s a wonderful place in New England where deafness is very common and everyone signs to communicate. [All12]

Yeah I just got back from MV deaf and hearing can interact because everyone knows sign language and I really enjoy going to church there because the pastor knows signs and the deaf children can go out and play in the countryside and when their parents need their attention they can just wave and get their attention visually and the kids will just come back. [All13]

Wow that’s awesome! It’s a really common thing for everyone to sign there. [All14]

You just saw a beautiful example of deaf lives, but sadly in 1859 Charles Darwin came on the scene with his Theory of Evolution. His theory had a huge impact on deaf people’s lives. Because of his theory hearing people started looking down on deaf people. [All15]

I’ll explain my theory of evolution. A long time ago apes evolved into humans. The cognitive ability of apes and humans both include feeling, power and curiosity of speech. If a brilliant man is born deaf does that mean he’s an ape?[All16]

What did he say? Was he talking about apes? I kinda think he was?[All17]

We need to teach them to talk. It maybe difficult but it’s important to do the right thing. Look how they talk. They need to learn to communicate properly. Their communication does not work as a language because it’s more like animal communication. It’s at a lower level. [All18]

Sign language is what God has given us to be able to express ourselves naturally. As deaf people we are a unique group because we can express ourselves. It is God’s gift to us so that we can express our spirit in the same way as hearing people.[All19]

Sign language is not God’s gift. It’s not a human trait. It’s not an expression of the spirit. It was learned from animals a long time ago before apes became highly evolved and learned to speak. [All20]

It’s god’s gift.

Not human.

Our spirit’s expression.

Animal Expression.

Natural Language.[All21]

Lesser communication.

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[All1]Good pacing – desired more inflection in the spoken translation – I like the gestures at the very end of the segment!

[All2]Pauses in between words were distracting and difficult to track line of thought – Good eye contact – posture very stiff when speaking

[All3]Excellent cadence, eye contact and facial expression

[All4]Animated – I like it

[All5]Segment seemed very natural

[All6]Excellent inflection!

[All7]Good facial expressions.

[All8]Excellent job addressing both women – pause a little awkward

[All9]Good pacing, easy to follow thought, she sounded sincere in her compliment

[All10]Appropriate gestures reinforce her response

[All11]Good job in expressing her question!

[All12]A little too monotone in expressing a wonderful place like Martha’s Vineyard

[All13]There is a natural rise and fall in her phrasing of her segments

[All14]Response seemed really natural

[All15]I felt like the interpreter identified with the last sentence of the segment.

[All16]No eye contact – felt like he was reading instead of “explaining his theory”

[All17]Good pacing – spacing between questions - inflection

[All18]Her cadence seemed more natural and at ease than her previous segments

[All19]expressive

[All20]Straight forward – wanted more expressiveness

[All21]Seemed to be argumentative!