Deafness and Ddeaf people :: Deaf People, Literacy and Two–Can Resources
(on literacy) "It's a goal–oriented approach, not a pre–set curriculum approach" Karen McGregor
What is Two–Can Resources?
Two–Can is a part of Derby City Council which makes teaching and learning resources for Deaf adults. Until recently, Two–Can was part of the Education Service but is now part of Children and Young People's Services.
How did Two–Can start?
It was formed in 1982 because Deaf people were going to social workers for help to fill in forms. Filling in a form is an ordinary, everyday task which most people take for granted. The information we write on forms is often private and confidential. It may be information that we don't want others to know about, but because some Deaf people couldn't read or write well, they had to ask someone else to fill in forms, so their information wasn't private anymore.
It was obvious that the basic literacy and numeracy needs of Deaf people were not being met and with encouragement from a social worker, the Deaf community of Derby brought this to the attention of the County Council. As a direct result of this, Two–Can was established. At first volunteers were enlisted to do the teaching and then the Deaf community lobbied the County Council and secured permanent financial funding to pay tutors and Graphic Artists and to buy equipment. It proved to be very successful.
The word spread and more and more Deaf people enrolled on courses to improve their literacy and numeracy skills and Skills for life. It was found that including pictures and BSL signs on teaching materials helped Deaf students to learn. Some drawings in the early work were a bit basic but it was a start.
A lot of Deaf people haven't had a good enough education at school to equip them with skills that are needed for everyday life. This is particularly true of people who went to school a long time ago. Teachers' expectations of Deaf children weren't high. Fortunately things have improved nowadays and will hopefully continue to do so. Of course, not all hearing people have had a good education.
When I was a child, I had a friend whose father, Tom, was a coal–miner. Tom was a big, strong fellow who worked nights and earned good money. His family didn't go short of anything. But Tom couldn't read or write. He could sign his name but that was all. And he used all sorts of tricks to hide the fact that he couldn't read or write. If he was in the pub and someone pointed out something interesting in the newspaper he would say, "Oh, I can't read that at the moment because I haven't got my glasses with me". I thought it was very sad that Tom felt that he needed to keep this secret all his life.
Nowadays Tom could have enrolled on a course to improve his literacy skills. There is a lot more opportunity now for hearing people to learn when they are older as most councils provide basic education classes in local areas. For Deaf people, it is more difficult, as there are fewer tutors with the necessary BSL skills required to teach Deaf adults.
In Derby at Two–Can, Deaf people can access courses more easily than in most parts of the UK. Two–Can has always been strongly supported by the Deaf community. It is based within the Derby Deaf Club at the Rycote Centre and operates an open door policy for Deaf people to come in and find out what's happening. Two–Can is widely respected and recognized nationally as a leader in Basic Skills for Deaf People.
Where are we today?
Two–Can is still in operation today although we anticipate some changes in the future. I work as part of the graphics team with two colleagues and I am also a basic skills tutor. I have found that becoming a tutor has helped me do my job in graphics better. I have a better understanding of how Deaf people learn and I can usually see if a teaching resource will work or not. Most of our students are on literacy courses because English is harder for a Deaf person to learn. English sentence structure is different to BSL sentence structure. In English the sentence, ‘I absolutely love chocolate’ could, in BSL, be simply ‘Chocolate love’, accompanied by good facial expressions. Lots of English words aren't used in BSL. Words like the, to, a, am, that, it, is, are just a few examples.
Spelling is often a problem for Deaf people. Some words can be learned by sound and I still use this method myself. The word LEOPARD sounds as if it should be spelt LEPPUD. So when I write the word, I say LEO-PARD in my head. And for the word ‘definitely’ I say DEF-I-NITE-LY to myself as I write. A Deaf person would find it difficult to use this method and would have to rely mainly on using a visual method of learning.
Having a graphics team at Two–Can, helps tutors to teach spelling. The Graphics Team and all the tutors at Two–Can have to pass Stage 2 sign language. We still use some volunteers and they also have to have Stage 2 BSL. The tutor always briefs the volunteer on what will be taught and checks regularly on the learner's progress.
Sometimes Deaf people are nervous about enrolling on a course. They may have bad memories of school and think it's going to be the same. But classes at Two–Can are very relaxed and no–one is put under any pressure. Some students regard it as a bit of a social outing, meeting people and sharing news and gossip. We sometimes have a group have a group exercise in the class and students often get quite competitive. One example is an anagram and students sit around and try and find out what the word is. You have to unscramble the letters and make a word. The teaching materials we make include BSL signs where necessary. If a learner's literacy skills are poor, we usually add more BSL signs to the work, and reduce and replace them with English words as the learner improves. We try to match the learners' work to their interests where possible and not make the work childish or patronizing. We are always aware that our learners are adults.
At Two–Can, we understand how Deaf learners learn and try and break down the barriers that prevent them learning. We can adapt teaching materials for Deaf learners on different courses in Derby City, outside Two–Can. Last year in another centre, a Deaf man enrolled on a course in digital photography but he found the English in the tutor's notes difficult to understand. His photography tutor contacted us at Two–Can and gave us a copy of the notes. We translated the English into a less complicated format and added some pictures to go with the text. This helped the learner to learn and helped the tutor to teach.
It was so successful that a pottery teacher heard about this and asked for similar work to be made for a student in her class who was Deaf. One of our students who is retired, had poor English skills and was really afraid of taking an exam. After a year of study and a lot of encouragement, he was persuaded to have a go. He passed Entry 1 Writing and his confidence soared! He wanted to do another exam and has just completed Entry 2 Reading. Our students are of varying ages. We don't tend to have many school-leavers, probably because they have had enough of learning and just want to enjoy life for a bit. They tend to return to learn later on when they may want to improve English to get a job or to help them do their job better. Students tend to range from 25 upwards and our oldest student is 91. He is interested in computers and is improving his reading by accessing websites. He loves to surf the net and find useful information. It just shows it’s never too late to learn!
We have modified work for hearing students who speak other languages and are learning English and we also create sign language booklets for Deaf tutors. We can provide graphics support for any tutor in our service. All the drawings are done by our Graphics Team and scanned onto a piece of work. The work is then given to the tutor to use with the learner. The learner will be asked to evaluate the work, to say what was good or bad, if it was easy to understand, if the drawings were clear and so on. When we are satisfied with the work, it is filed onto a computer archive so that we can amend or print out copies as required. There isn't another centre like Two–Can in the whole of the UK, where teaching materials are made specifically for a student.
We have our own system to categorise work. Separate sheets of work are kept in files under relevant headings and we also have booklets on various topics. We can enlarge work for students with eyesight problems or print work onto coloured paper. Our learners are positively encouraged to work towards an exam although they don't have to if they don't want to. We usually find that as their confidence improves they are more willing to take an exam.
© 2006, Thelma Knowlson, Two–Can Resources. Edited by Ddeaf Equality Forward for the website. Thelma is a Graphics Artist and Basic Skills tutor at Two–Can Resources.
For more information on Two–Can Resources and their work, contact them at: Two–Can Resources, Rycote Centre, Parker Street, Derby, DE1 3HF. Tel: 01332 717926, Fax 01332 717926, or email Two–Can Resources
