64 Sonya Warren, Santie Meyer and H.E.C. Tesner Afrikaa ns subjects English subjects South African signs 42% 35% Variations VOOR Dez a b In front Cupped 1 finger Extreme variation within Compressed hand of) hand this sign Compressed hand Sig Move hand Point Move hand across chest forward in finger for- L-R or R-L semi-circle ward. Wrist away from of dominant chest hand strikes wrist- of oppo- site hand Tab Chest neutral Wrists Chest Orient Vertical- Vertical- Vertical- toward body toward away from Vertical- toward body body body Face 50% 20% 87% NA...TOE Dez a b (TO) 1st finger 1st finger 1st finger 1st finger bilateral 1st finger Sig Move 1st Point Point finger Join tips of fingers finger of finger Join tips of fingers dominant hand along side of opposite 1st finger Tab Side of In front In front or L; R 1st finger of opposite hand opposite centre of body finger centre of body Orient Horizontal Vertical- Vertical-unilateral opposite Vertical-palm away palm down unilateral from body opposite Face The Use of Signs and the Coding of Prefix Markers by Teachers at a School foi the Deaf ι Myrtle L Aron, Ph D (Witwatersrand·) i Robyn Ε Lewis, BA(Log.) (Witwatersrand) BA Soc.Science (UNISA) j Judy L Willemse, BA (Sp. & Η Therapy) (Witwatersrand) Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ABSTRACT The use of aspects of an artificially devised manual code in a black schoolfor the deaf was examined. The encoding of prefixes, bound with the noun class system, in Tswana as used by seven teachers was studied as well as the consistency of the teachers to code lexical items. Results .indicated the absence of signed prefix markers, inconsistency in signing lexical items and much variability among teachers in the signs used. The educational and research implications are discussed. /'' OPSOMMING Die gebruik van aspekte van "n kUnsmatig ontwikkelde gebarestelsel in 'n swart skool vir dowes, is ondersoek. Die enkodering van voorvoegsels verbonde aan die naamwoordklasstelsel in Tswana soos gebruik deur sewe onderwysers is bestudeer, asook die konstantheid van die onderwyser se vermoe om leksikale items te kodeer. Resultate dui op die afwesigheid van voorvoegselgebare, onkonstantheid van leksikale gebare en baie variasie onder onderwysers t. o. v. die gebare wat hulle gebruik. Die opvoedkundige en navorsingsimplikasies word bespreek. ^ Ο SASHA 1986 77^ South African Journal of Communication Disorders, Vol 33, 1986 R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) -fhe Use of Signs and the Coding of Prefix Markers by Teachers at a School for the Deaf 65 The objective of deaf education has always been to teach the child the language of his culture — the culture of the hearing society in which he must live (Bornstein, 1978; Lewis 1984). This objective has pertained irrespective of the mode of communication used in in teaching deaf children. The long standing conflict between the use of oralism and manual communication still prevails although there has been a shift over the last twenty years in most education institutions for the deaf towards the use of manual communication often within a total communication framework. This shift has come about largely due to the apparent failure of oralism and oral education to teach spoken language and the increased use, interest and research into sign languages. Total Communication embraces an eclectic philosophy, which includes the combined use of a sign language system, manual coding, fingerspelling, speech, auditory training, speech reading, amplification, cueing and any other means whereby the child is taught to encode and decode language. A true natural sign language, which is the visual-gestural language of a deaf community, has its own lexicon, "phonological" and syntactic structure which is systematic and rule-governed. Its basic encoding unit is the word represented by a sign. Inflectional marking is distinguished by spatial temporal dimensions. Non- manual signs, such as stylised facial expression, also denote syntactic forms, such as question-type and subordinate clauses. (Klima & Belugi 1980; Liddell, 1980; Stokoe, 1978). It is expected that existing "natural" sign languages in South Africa would show great divergence from each other due to the diverse ethnic, demographic and politically induced separation of social groups as well as differences in the spoken mother tongues. Natural sign language plays a central role in maintaining the culture and ethnocentricity of deaf communities and is bound to the whole culture on one hand and physical constraints of the users on the other (Stokoe 1978; Cokeley and Baker 1980; Erting 1981). Manual coding differs from natural sign in that it has been artifically devised by educationalists to represent the syntax of spoken language. In addition, some codes represent the morphological structure of the language in varying degrees (Crystal et al. 1976; Evans 1982). However, it is important to note that /tlie more reputable and widely used of these codes supplement the natural sign language, rather than replacing it. In order to relate sign language to coding, Woodward (1972) suggested a sign continuum, with natural sign language at one end and the contrived sign systems at the other. A pidgin sign language occurs between the two extremes and incorporates elements of both signing and coding — it derives from the necessity for communication between deaf and hearing individuals. Manual codes (MC) are used in educational settings and never as the home language of deaf people. Examples of MCs include:- Signed English, Manual English, Seeing Essential English (SEE) and Signing Exact English (SEE2), the Rochester Fingerspelling Method and the Paget-Gorman Sign System (P- G). The latter system was developed in England and is of signifi- cance in South Africa. It was first introduced at the Kutlwanong School for the Deaf in Bophuthatswana some twenty-five years ago. No doubt it changed its form over the years of usage and undoubtedly provided part of the framework for the text Talking to the Deaf developed by Nieder-Heitmann past principal of Kutlwanong school for some years. This text has now been introduced into all black schools for the deaf in Southern Africa. Teaching staff are trained to use Talking to the Deaf by means of short courses and videotape (Van der Merwe, 1986). I The book Talking to the Deaf consists of 1500 signs which are claimed to be representative of signs used by the majority of deaf South Africans. There is no empirical evidence or published data to support this claim. Penn et al. (1984) provide preliminary evidence to show that these signs are not used by all deaf groups. The relationship of the Nieder-Heitmann (N-H) signs to natural sign languages is therefore much in question. The South African black languages are heavily morphological, being characterised by a noun class system and extensive agreement based upon that system. Prefixes on the noun stem indicate noun class and number. Th e prefix determines the form of the agreement morphemes of the other sentence constituents, all of which must be brought into agreement with the determining head noun (Cole, 1982). Although the N-H code makes some provisions for manually coding the syntax of black languages, this does not extend to the noun class system. According to Gustason (1983) an effective code increases the input of morphological markers, word endings and other structural elements. It appears relevant and necessary to explore whether the use by teachers of the recently introduced dictionary of signs — Talking to the Deaf (Nieder-Heitmann, 1980) incorporates adaptations such as prefix markers intrinsic to Tswana, the spoken language of the area. One black school for the deaf was selected for studying this. METHOD Aims of this study (1) To determine whether the teachers in a black school for the deaf are encoding certain prefixes of the Tswana language, and if so, what form of coding they are using. (2) To examine the consistency with which the teachers are reproducing there prefix markers. (3) To ascertain whether the sign for a lexical item (noun) remains the same when used in isolation and in context by each Teacher Subject. (4) To note whether there is any influence of the signs from the original Paget-Gorman system on the signs used by the subjects for lexical items. Seven subjects (A,B,C,D,E,F & G), all teachers at a black school for the deaf were selected. In addition, twenty-one pupils at the school were used to simulate a communicative interaction between teacher and pupil. The Teacher Subjects (TS's) were required to be native Tswana speakers and to have taught at the school for at least two years so as to be familiar with the signing methods in use. All the TS's were teaching standards 1-5, in order to ensure that a sign system was used in the classroom, and that the test items were appropriate and meaningful. The pupils used to simulate a classroom situation were congeni- tally deaf, their home language was Tswana and they had attended the school for a minimum of two years. They were therefore familiar with the signing system used during this time period. A National WV361 portable videocamera was used to record each TS's performance on the tasks. Five Tswana nouns, each from a different noun class and in singular and plural forms were selected. These nouns appear in Talking to the Deaf (Nieder-Heitmann 1980). The nouns selected were: Noun Class 1 moruti (teacher) Noun Class 2 mollo (five) Noun Class 3 leru (cloud) Noun Class 4 segokgo (spider) Noun Class 5 podi (goat) Die Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Kommunikasieafwykings, Vol. 33, 1986 R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) 66 These lexical items were chosen for their frequency of use and relevance within the teaching situation. Due to time limitations Noun Classes la, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were excluded. Classes 1 to 4 take both singular and plural prefixes. Multi-syllabic words in class 5 do not take a singular prefix (Cole, 1982). This class was included . to ascertain whether coding of the singular occurs in spite of the absence of a prefix. As the plural prefixes of class 4 and 5 nouns are the same, it would be of interest to note whether they were coded differently. In addition, the object pronouns of each class were included in the test material as their grammatical form corresponds to the noun prefix. The object pronouns are as follows:- Noun Class 1 Ke a mo rata (I like him/her) Noun Class 2 Ke a ο besa (I light it) Noun Class 3 Ke a le bona (I see it) Noun Class 4 Ke a se bolaya (I kill jt) Noun Class 5 Ke a e gama (I milk jt) Each TS was required to sign the selected nouns in the following forms: (1) Singular — in isolation: moruti (teacher). (2) Singular — in context: Ke rata moruti (I like the teacher). (3) Singular pronoun: Ke a mo rata (I like him/her). (4) Plural in isolation: baruti (teachers) (5) Plural in context: Ke rate baruti (I like the teachers). (6) Plural pronoun: Ke a ba rata (I like them). The subjects were video recorded signing the five nouns to the examiner (E) alone, and to three pupils. This was to ascertain whether the TS's would convey the prefix markers in an instruc- tional setting with more deliberation. The nouns were signed in isolation and in context to see if they changed in form with varied syntactic contexts. At the end of the study the TS's were also required to complete a questionnaire concerning their awareness of the noun class system in Tswana, and their need to convey such information to their pupils. In addition, information which might influence the TS's proficiency in sign usage was tapped, namely: teaching qualifi- cations, length of teaching experience at the school, method of sign instruction, and perception of consistency of sign usage at the school. A questionnaire was also completed by the school principal, con- cerning the school's policy to signing, how the noun class system should be taught and the instruction of teachers in the system. ANALYSIS OF DATA The signed nouns will be described, using the Nieder-Heitmann (N-H) code as reference. In addition, the Paget-Gorman signs will be considered in order to compare this original code with N-H and the TS's variations of the N-H code. Each signed noun produced by the TS's was recorded as the same as the N-H system, or a variation (V) or as a totally different sign (D) to the N-H system. The variations or the different signs from the N-H were arranged in terms of the three cheremes described by Stokoe (1976): a) DEZ (Designator) — the configuration of the hands, b) TAB (Tabula) — the location on or near the body while the sign is made, (c) SIG (Signation) — the movement aspect of the hands. In addition, the signed noun in isolation (condition "a") was compared to its use in a syntactic context (condition "b") and described as the same (S) or different (D). Myrtle L. Aron, Robyn E. Lewis and Judv L w „ 1 " w'"emse Two graduate speech therapists acted as raters to analys sample of the teachers' signs to assess the accuracy of tl^ * V ' d e ° and categorization of all the signs as determined bv o r , a n a ' y s i s authors. e o f 'he RESULTS 1. Signed Nouns A. Description of signs Table 1 provides a description of the responses recorded denotes whether the signs used were the same as described^ Nieder-Heitmann (1980), or a variation thereof — the variaf ^ used are described in the table. Table 2 provides a summa °of the data in Table 1 and indicates the percentage scores of whethe the responses were Nieder-Heitmann signs, variations thereof totally different signs. It can be seen from both Table 1 and Table 2 that consistency i n signing between the TS's is minimal. Only for the nouns "moruti" and "mollo" is there some overlap, where two TS's used the same variation. Other variations are used exclusively by each TS however, many of the variations are minimal, differing in a single chereme. It can be noted from Table 2 that a large percentage of signed nouns used are variations of the N-H signs (X80%). There was one occurrence of "moruti" which was totally different, and four occurrences for "podi". It is interestingto note that all TS's used the sign "preacher" rather than "teacher" (moruti). Stokoe and Kuschell (1979) note the significance of cultural factors in language and this may be an example of such cultural factors. Comparing Tables 1 and 3 it is clearly evident that the P-G signs differ extensively from both N-H and the TS's variations. Reference will be made in the discussion, to the significance of the lack of similarity between the P-G and the teacher variations, although a study of the pupil's use of natural sign as compared with P-G would be of significant interest. B. Consistency of use in isolation as compared to use in context There were two occurrences out of a total of seventy in which the signed nouns were different when used in isolation and context. The influence of syntactic context did not appear to affect the formation of the sign. However, as only a single syntactic context was used, this finding must be viewed with caution. Writers such as Stokoe (1976), and Klima and Bellugi (1980) have illustrated much variance in signing in context. Signs may vary in terms of spatial and temporal dimensions. C. Consistency of use in the demonstration of signs by the TS's to the Ε as compared to the use of signs to pupils. There was also high consistency (80%) for the two situations. Native users of sign language belong to a diglossic community, implying varieties of signing used by the same speaker under different conditions, particularly when addressing deaf or hearing individuals. As the TS's are not native users of sign, and only use it in the educational setting, this may explain the non-variance. II Prefix Markers Signed prefix markers were not used by the TS's for any of the test items. This fining indicates that no manual means exist in the signing system for coding the variety of noun classes in Tswana. This was substantiated by the TS's answers to the questionnaire. Five TS's reported that the noun class system is not taugn formally, but is deduced by the pupils from the written form. Τ 1 S written form is recorded on a wall-chart, used for learning dn The school principal was uncertain as to how the noun pretixe The South African Journal of Communication Disorders, Vol. 33, R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) n>« nH the Coding of Prefix Markers by Teachers at a School for the Deaf U s e of Sign s anu 67 13V • t on of the variations with DEZ, TAB and SIG formations of the lexical items used by the Teacher Subjects as compared to f»ble 1 ^ ^ e r - H e i t m a n n reference signs ( ii) Variations: Bilateral: th&l-f positioned approximately 3cm apart, b of hands face body. 1. Unilateral 2. Bilateral: not symmetri- cal 1-H; 1-f points up, th & 2-f slightly apart point horizontally 2-H: as for N-H sign. 3. Bilateral: th & 1-f further apart, ρ faces body 4. Unilateral: 1-f and then TAB SIG No. of subjects using signs in the 2 situations TS to Ε TS to pupils Neck/throat 2. mollo (i)N-H sign: (ii) Variations: 3. leru (i) N-H sign: (ii) Variations: Bilateral: Spread-H, ρ faces body 1. Unilateral 2. Compressed-H 3. Compressed-H 4. Unilateral: Compressed-H 1-H:side of face 2-H as for N-H sign Chest Neck and Chest. Chest 5. — Bilateral: Spread-H; b. of hand faces floor Abdomen Level with forehead I 1. — 2. Unilateral: Flat-H; ρ faces floor. 3. Cupped-H; p. faces floor 4. Unilateral: Flat-H; p. faces floor 5. Unilateral: Clawed-H; p. faces floor 6. Unilateral: p. faces floor 7. Unilateral: Flat-H p. faces floor 8. Unilateral: Flat-H Above head Above head. Move hands apart from midline to edge of neck indicating collar. 1 (E) 2 (F&G) Move hands across from 2 (A;C) 1 (A) one side of neck to the other 1-H stationary 0 1 (B) 2-H: move hand across from one side of neck to the other Move hands apart from 2 (C:D) 2 (C:D) midline to edge of chest. Move 1-f across neck, then 1 (F) 1 (F) Flat-H down chest. Move hands up and down and repeated tapping movement of fingers indicating flames. Tapping movement of fingers against th no up and down hand movement. Tapping movement of fingers against th only upward hand movement. 2 (A:G) 2 (A:G) 1 (B) 2 (C:E) 1 (D) 1 (F) Move hands apart from 0 midline, using pronounced semi-circular movements along a horizontal plane. Hands positioned adjacent 1 (A) each other and move in same direction across body Moves hand shorter 1 (B) distance along horizontal plane; very slight semi- circular movements. Very slight semi-circular 1 (C) hand movement. Moves hand shorter 1 (D) distance along horizontal plane; very slight semi- circular movements. Moves hand along horizon- 1 (E) tal plane: Initial semi- circular movements very slight. Moves hand along horizon- 1 (F) tal plane; rapid and very slight semi-circular movement. - 1 (G) Fingers move independently 0 1 (B) 2 (C:E) 1 (D) 1(F) 0 1 (A) 1 (B) 1 (C) 1 (D) 1 (E) 1 (F) 0 1 (C) D" Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Kommunikasieafwykings, Vol. 33, 1986 R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) 68 Myrtle L. Aron, Robyn E. Lewis and Judy L. Willemse 4, segokgo (i) N-H sign: Unilateral: Clawed-H; Level with nose Slow vertical movement 0 0 p. faces floor. from centre/neutral position to position level with nose; then slight hori- zontal movement, fingers move rapidly as if typing. (ii) Variations: 1. Bilateral Chest Hands across at wrist; 1 (A) 1 (A) no vertical movement of hands; fingers move in unison tapping against th. 2. — — Hands move diagonally 1 (B) 1 (B) from side of chest to above head. 3. — Neck/Throat Slight horizontal hand 1 (C) 1 (C) movement absent. 4. — — Hand moves across chest: 1 (D) 0 no vertical movement of hand upwards. 5. Cupped-H. — No finger movement; 0 1 (D) No vertical movement of hand upwards. 6. — — Rapid vertical movement; 1 (E) 1 (E) slight horizontal movement absent. 7. — Chest No vertical movement 1 (F) 1 (F) of hand upwards. 8. b. of hand faces body — Vertical movement begins 1 (G) 1 (G) in upper chest region, slight horizontal movement absent. 5. podi (i) N-H sign: Unilateral; Fist-H; Neck/Throat Hand moves from chin a 1 (G) 1 (G) knuckles face away short distance vertically from body downwards, indicating beard. (ii) Variations: 1. th, 1-f and 2-f together — Hand moves from chin in 1 (A) 1 (A) semi-circle outwards. 2. Bilateral; not R.H. top of head R.H. — stationary 1 (C) 0 symmetrical L.H.-Neck/Throat L.H. rapid movements up R.H. — V-H and down from chin. L.H. — th, 1-f and 2-f together. I 3. Same as 2. Same as 2. R.H. — stationary 0 1 (C) ! L.H. — one slow movement I down from chin. 4. th (on top of chin) — Slow downward movement 1 (E) 1(E) 1 and 1-f (under chin) against chin twice S. Same as 4. — Rapid downwards 1 (F) 1 (F) movement against chin. KEY: f — finger th — thumb b — back ρ — palm 1-f — first finger 2-f — second finger 3-f — third finger 1-H — first hand 2-H — second hand R.H. — right hand L.H. — left hand Flat-H — Flat-Hand Spread-H — Spread-Hand Compressed-H — Compressed Hand Cupped-H — Cupped-Hand Clawed-H — Clawed-Hand Fist-H — Fist-Hand V-H — V-Hand The South African Journal of Communication Disorders, Vol. 33, 1986 R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) he Use of Signs and the Coding of Prefix Markers by Teachers at a School for the Deaf 69 ble 2 Signed nouns used by each Teacher Subject in terms of whether they are Nieder-Heitmann Signs, variations thereof, or totally Τ 3 * different from the Nieder-Heitmann sign, and number and percentage of occurrence within each category in both situations across all nouns. Situ- ation SIGN N-H V D TSs Situ- ation moruti mollo leru segokgo podi No/10 % No/10 % No/10 % A + V V N-H N-H V V V V V V 2 20 8 80 — — Β + D V V V V V V V D D — — 7 70 3 30 C + V V V V V V V V V V — — 10 100 — — D + V V V V V V V V D D — — 8 80 2 20 Ε + N-H N-H V V V V V V V V 2 20 8 80 — — F + V V V V V V V V V V — — 10 100 — — — V N-H V V N-H 5 50 5 50 _ + N-H N-H V V N-H X 9 13 56 80 5 7 KEY: — = TS demonstration to E; + = TS demonstration to group of pupils; N-H V = Variation of N-H sign; D = Totally different from N-H sign = Nieder-Heitmann sign; Table 3 Description of Paget-Gorman Signs within DEZ, TAB and SIG formations (Nieder-Heitmann 1980) SIGN DEZ TAB SIG teacher (moruti) (no sign for preach/er) 1-H: 1-f pt up, tl & 2nd finger pt horizontally. 2-H: compressed hand 1-H level with shoulder 2-H-side forehead 1-H: extend tl & 1 finger outwards. 2-H-Twist wrist to open hand fire: (mollo) (Unilateral) 5 point-hand, (fingers & thumb pt upward- straight & seperate from one another) Side of chest Move all digits simultaneously & independently of one another cloud (leru) Unilateral, spread-hand, palm faces floor Forehead Vibrate hand vertically segohgo (spider) Unilateral clawed hand p. faces floor Shoulder Hand lowers vertically, one hand length moving digits independantly podi (goat) 1-H; l - f & 4-f up; 2-f & 3-f on th. palm faces floor. 2-H: 1-f on side 4-f. 1-H & th on side 2-f 1-H 1-H: shoulder 2-H: lower V2h. breadth closing Th & 1-f. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Kommunikasieafwykings, Vol. 33, 1986 R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) 70 Myrtle L. Aron, Robyn E. Lewis and Judy L. Willemse Table 4 Description of the Nieder-Heitmann object pronoun sign across the cheremic configurations, and variations thereof SIGN DEZ TAB SIG N-H sign: Unilateral; 1-f points diagonally downwards. Side of body (same side as ! hand involved) Stationary Variations: Dez 1: Bilateral Dez 2: f points straight or diagonally upwards. Tab 1: f points to front of body. Tab 2: f points above head. Sig 1: hand moves across body, Sig. 2: m Table 5 Description of the Nieder-Heitmann plural sign across the cheremic configurations, and variations thereof SIGN DEZ TAB SIG N-H sign: Unilateral: th and 1-f meet. Side of chest below shoulder of opposite side. Move hand across chest from" shoulder on same side to lower position below shoulder of opposite side. Variations: TAB 1: mid-chest area. TAB 2: lower face/neck area. TAB 3: side of body opposite face. TAB 4: mouth TAB 5: shoulder of same side. SIG 1: no movement of hand from shoulder of same side to other shoulder. SIG 2: hand moves from midline of chest to opposite shoulder. SIG 3: hand moves from shoulder to midline of chest. were taught to the pupils, but believed the teachers used the written mode. A single TS stated that she finger-spelled the prefixes and another emphasized the role of lip-reading. Five TS's stated that no instruction had been given to them on how to convey noun classes. (The remaining two TS's appeared to mis- comprehend the question, and responded inappropriately). Ill The object pronoun and plural forms As indicated above the noun prefixes for both structures were not distinguished through manual means. They were illustrated purely as lexical items by their respective N-H signs or variations thereof, as were the singular nouns. The most interesting variations occurred for the object pronoun. The N-H sign does not account for a location shift, according to the direction in space appropriate to the person or object being referred to. However, in the variations used by some TS's (see Table 4) it appears that there was an attempt to increase the mor- phological information. This is in accordance with pronominali- sation in American Sign Language as well as various MCE systems (Gustason 1980). The N-H sign employs the non-manual component of eye direction — the signer is required to look at his hand when signing; presumably to indicate who is being referred to. This was observed in only two of the TS's. The N-H plural sign and variations thereof are described in Table 5. It can be seen that there was a great deal of variation in both the TAB and the SIG cheremes. Signs changed position in front of the body, in close conjunction with the context sign (Schlesinger, 1978), and this principle was clearly seen operating here. A general trend was that the formation of the plural marker was less discrete in syntactic context than in isolation. IV Results of the questionnaire put to Teacher Subjects 1) A single TS had a Diploma in Special Education — the others had only a General Primary Teacher's Diploma. Evans (1982) feels that professional education of teachers of the deaf should provide for instruction in manual communi- cation during a specialised period of study. 2) The period of service at the school ranged from 6 to 12 years. This suggests that all the TS's had been exposed to a signing system which differed from N-H for several years prior to its introduction. It would thus be expected that some confusion with the "old' system would arise, particularly if it is used by the children as their natural sign system. 3) The TS's stated they had been taught "the signs" by the more exerienced teachers at the school, as well as from the pupils and by using the text Talking to the £>