Researeh On Unequal Penomenon In Compulsory Schools For The Deaf

Since1954, Most schools for the Deaf in mainland of China have focused on oral teaching method which has taken as traditional first and only choice. This philosophy seems to reduce the inequality between deaf people with hearing people, actually it enhances gap in2groups. This research doubts current compulsory deaf school education by criticizing the medical view of deafness in school field:isolating deaf students from normal human beings by putting oral teaching on the top target list, which devotes to make deaf students become hearing people or near to be hearing through learning spoken language. However, few people cares about or concerns deaf students’ feeling and experience on what is carrying on in school for the deaf. This kind of education covers virtually existed inequality by seemingly equality.Linguistic researches have proved that first language always shows positive and negative transfer on second language acquisition. Meanwhile, different cultures simultaneously bring barriers. Therefore, oral language being teaching language in deaf schools is deaf students’ second language, which always makes them self-abasement and self-denial, lacking of self-esteem, self-confident and self-affirmation. From views of sociological science, oral methods in deaf schools only benefit hearing people who doesn’t learn effective sign language, not students in deaf schools.Sign language is the most essential factor of deaf culture, which combines deaf people in the whole society, connecting deaf people and hearing people as communicating tool meanwhile. Recognizing sign language’s linguistic and social status somehow means recognizing cultural identity of deaf people that is where social inequality between deaf people and hearing people in Concept field roots in. Relation between deaf society and hearing society is the starting point of discussions on equality in deaf education. Demonstration studies in this research shows differences between hearing teachers and deaf students’acceptation and reorganization on deafness from different dimensions, such as if deafness is regarded as disability and how deaf students are enforced to learn oral language. Public schools for the deaf from south and north China City were investigated, analyzing microcosmic unequal phenomenon in deaf schools via questioner, interviews and text analysis. Results of demonstration studies show:1. The main recognition of deafness in deaf students still is disability. Hearing teachers present more disabled identity on deafness than deaf students do.2. Deaf students and hearing teachers both confirm that sign language plays essential role in classroom instructing and daily communication between students and teachers, however, they have not set up linguistic and social recognition of sign language.3. Deaf students’identity to deaf culture is still in bud at the present stage.4. Many years’oral methods in instruction makes profound impact on deaf students, which leads to deaf students, consider oral language teaching is more important than hearing teachers do. This reflects partially deprivation of sign language on deaf students and strengthens the inequality in deaf schools.This research reveals the main unequal phenomenon as below: instructional objective of oral language; omission of sign language and deaf culture in curriculum; limits of teacher-students communication in classroom teaching; neglecting of deaf people’s perceiving feature in physical setting of classroom and totally literally assessment method. These result in negative effect in deaf education which hinders deaf students grow up with matures and psychological health of the right age.To reduce the unequal phenomenon in deaf schools, this research brings up with suggestions:set up social cultural perspective of deaf children and deaf education; cognize and develop deaf culture in schools for the deaf; adjust hearing teachers’identity of sign language and improve their sign language skill; confirm the important role of deaf teachers; extend bilingual and bicultural approach in schools for the deaf.This research points out that features of deaf people should be identified in contemporary society, which cherish humanist philosophy. The exist of deaf culture should be respected al well. Hearing lost does not mean unmoral or being separated from hearing society. They are equal human being with different language and culture. How much deaf people seem like hearing people should not be regarded as standard of success. Perspective of changing deaf people becomes hearing people means unequal to students in schools for the deaf. Deaf people^live in the same world with hearing people, sign language and deaf culture are essential to their primary attachment and regular life, which cannot be neglected by instruction objective of pursuing culture of hearing society. Therefore, confirmation on sign language as deaf people’s first language and its important role in their social development, more attention on bilingual and bicultural approach of deaf education will be the goals of compulsory schools for the deaf pursue in the coming future.