Myth A:  ASL is an alternate communication.

Myth B: Bi-Bi allows voice off while bilingual allows the usage of voice when signing.

Oh goody!  Myth Debunking Time! *rolling up my sleeves*

ASL is a language, not an alternate communication. I have never heard anyone refer to English or other spoken languages as “alternate communication.”  Yet, ASL is constantly demoted from the status of language to mere communication, like telegraphing, gestures, and yes, semaphores.  What is communication anyway?  Is it language?  Nope. Read on…

Communication is the imparting of messages in spite of barriers.  Barriers could include distance and/or language differences (i.e. two people from two different countries that don’t speak the same language.) Communication forms include Morse code through the telegraph, semaphores, light signals, radio, ad nauseam.  These forms were devised to overcome distance barriers.

Languages are not communication.  They are what people of one language group use to communicate ideas, concepts and thoughts with others of the same language group.  Languages all have linguistic principles, grammar syntax, structures, phonology and morphology that are particular to specific languages. (No two languages have the same syntax, structure or other linguistic principles.)

What happens when language barriers arise?  You have translators (interpreters are communicative devices–radical concept, I know ).   You also have gestures, to transcend language barriers.  You could also draw pictures as well.  I am certain you can think of other examples that overcome language barriers.

ASL has been proven to be a bona fide language.  The first person to validate ASL as a language was Willam Stokoe. Other linguists since then have continued to find more evidence that ASL is a language.  According to linguists, language and communication are NOT synonymous.  Language and communication are two distinct things.  Try googling linguistic terms. You will not find “communication”.  This is because communication is not a linguistic term.

MYTH B: “Bi-Bi allows voice off while bilingual allows the usage of voice when signing. ”

ASL requires the use of Non-Manual grammatical Signals and Non-Manual grammatical Markers (NMS and NMM). The Nonmanual grammatical Signals are the movements of head, shoulder, or leaning of the torso, for example.  The signals are usually linked to the markers.   The eyebrow movements are Non-Manual grammatical Markers that inform the other person of the type of sentence being used, be it a sentence, question, relative clause or conditional phrase, and so on forth.  The lip movements indicate whether a word is adjective, or a verb is modified by an adverb.  The eyebrow and lip movements are called Non-Manual grammatical markers.

This is why people are told to turn off their voices when using ASL.  When you voice and sign simultaneously, you’re using Simultaneous Communication, a method used to teach English.  Any one who has studied ASL linguistics would know it is impossible to use ASL OR English accurately when sim-comming.  When you sim-com, you’re combining two languages in a way that violates the grammatical structures and features of BOTH languages.

How is that so? At the risk of repeating myself, here is the explanation.

As I stated above, the nonmanual grammatical signals and markers include body and head shifts (those are nonmanual grammatical signals) as well as shifts of eyebrows, narrowing or widening of eyes, and various pursing of the lips, puffing or sucking of the cheeks (those are nonmanual grammatical markers.  The eyebrow movements indicate the type of ASL sentences—yes/no questions, wh-questions, topicalization…which are the ASL version of what you know as punctuation.  The lip movement and puffing/sucking in of cheeks are adverbs and adjectives).  Therefore, to correctly model ASL, you CANNOT voice because that requires lip movements that renders impossible the modeling of adjectives and adverbs in ASL.

Simcomming would also adversely affect the modeling of spoken English.  What happens is that some English words get dropped, and this results in fragmented sentences, or grammatically nonsensical sentences. If one simply taped the voicing of English while using ASL at the same time, and then later listened to that tape, you would find the English used to be incorrect, and more difficult to understand.  I was told that this experiment was attempted, and that the result was that the speaker sounded like a veritable idiot.   Try this and see.

Now that we understand that using voice-on while signing is sim-comming and violates both languages, we can conclude that sim-comming is not being bilingual.

Being bilingual means having the ability to use two DISTINCT languages, in different contexts.  People who are bilingual have the ability to switch between the two languages, for various reasons. This is true of Spanish bilinguals in the USA, and francophones in Canada who are usually able to speak English as well.  The same is true of bilingual-bicultural programs that includes the use of English and ASL.

What is Bi-Bi?  It’s the Bilingual-Bicultural philosophy that promotes the use of two languages, and encourages children to grow up bilingual.  Bi-Bi philosophy also promotes mutual respect of both cultures through the bilingual approach.   When one speaks of Bi-Bi, one is usually referring to programs where ASL and English are used as languages in schools. These programs usually practice the voice-off policy, to avoid the mangling of both languages which occurs when one voices and signs at the same time.   When one understands that two languages have distinct linguistic principles, one understands the reasoning behind the voice-off policy.

Myth Debunking Time is over… until next time.  There WILL be a next time, guaranteed.