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The History of TTSL in Trinidad
A brief history of Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language (TTSL) which references "Language contact and the history of sign language in Trinidad and Tobago" by Ben Braithwaite, 2018.
Создана
Maya Ramesar
⟶ Обновлено 30 мая 2018 ⟶
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The first school for Deaf children was founded by Reverend F.W Gilby, an Anglican Minister from England born to two Deaf parents.
The school was moved in 1947 to Cascade and the Cascade School for the Deaf (CSD) remains the only residential school for deaf children in the country The first principal of the new school was Floretta Case, and the first teacher was a Canadian woman named Alice Crummach, both of whom had experience in Deaf education in Jamaica. (Braithwaite, Drayton and Lamb 2011)
CSD has 60 students and 80 teachers, educated in Britain and who taught using the accepted oralist method. This meant children were taught to read lips and undergo speech drills. Students during the 50s and 60s recall 'signing among themselves, despite the threat of punishment from teachers.' (Braithwaite 2018)
Total Communication introduced to CSD after visit from Frances Parsons, a Deaf advocate from Gallaudet University, the first school for the advanced education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the world. ASL classes were also being taught by missionaries and educators bringing texts featuring ASL (American Sign Language) and SEE (Signing Exact English) (Braithwaite 2018)
Said of a Deaf man wo attended CSD during this time, “Every day the teachers told me to stop using my hands in class, they told me to speak and I tried. We had to hold our hands behind our backs but I used to misbehave. When the teacher turned her back I used signs with the other children but had to do it quickly before the teacher looked around. In the yard, during break time we used signs.” Lamb (2016:79)
“The teachers at Cascade School did not use sign language. They would spell out [English] words using fingerspelling, and write them on the board. Some of the letters, like the F, were different. They did not sign, and we had to lipread.”
“After I had left Cascade School for the Deaf and grown up, my sister had a child. My nephew went to the school in Marabella. I used to drive to the school to pick him up and take him home. I was surprised to see that they were using a new sign language, American Sign Language. I asked him to teach me, so that I could understand.”
“Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language is better. American Sign Language is different, and I don’t completely understand it, but Trinidad and Tobago Sign Language I know completely.”
A Melting Pot of Signs, an index of TTSL was published by the Ministry of Development in 2010 although it had very limited distribution. It provided signs for around 500 English words. In its introduction it claims that sign language was non-existent on the island before the onset of formal Deaf education, however this has since been proven wrong.
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Main method: Oralism British Sign Language was used sparingly and later American Sign Language was introduced, although mainly used as a tool to teach reading.
Signing in Trinidad and Tobago today is characterized by widespread multilingualism and considerable variation. Age is often a determining factor for which language is used more, with older signers preferring TTSL and younger signers demonstrating more ASL and SEE usage, influenced by school and now primarily American Deaf media.
Older Deaf Trinidadians recall Sign Languages being used prior to the onset of formal deaf education and the introduction of British Sign Language (BSL).
