Simultaneous Communication (sim-com): the use of sign supported speech (speaking and signing at the same time); this practice is often referred to in deaf education as total communication (TC). Research has demonstrated a variety of problems that result from the simultaneous communication of hearing people including:
- The signer omits signs
- The signs chosen are semantically incorrect
- The signs produced are slurred and incoherent due to attempts to sign as fast as one can speak
- The signs produced are slurred and incoherent due to the cross model nature of the act and
- The substitution of English mouth movements for proper ASL non-manual mouth markers create a confused message.
Speechreading: a skill employed by some deaf and hard of hearing individuals to comprehend spoken communication; involves a combination of deciphering lip, cheek, and throat movements, clarifying gestures and use of closure skills to determine meaning. Speechreading takes great skill to master, to give you an example... Mouth these words to yourself in front of a mirror and you will see how similar they look on the mouth.
- I love You
- I'll have two
- I have to
- Island view
- Elephant shoes
- Olive juice
Minimal Language Skills (MLS), Minimal Language Competency (MLC) or High Visual Orientation (HVO): terms used to refer to individuals who have no language skills in ASL, LSQ, English, French, or any other language. This sometimes occurs because an individual has been educationally or socially deprived and never had an opportunity to develop language skills. Typically, an individual who is linguistically deprived is also socially deprived because s/he has never had an opportunity to learn societal norms, cultural values, or appropriate ways of interacting with others.
Linguistics of Visual English (LOVE): developed by Dennis Wampler. It is identical to SEE1 except that it uses the Stokoe notation system (a type of linguistic shorthand) to convey information about how signs are produced whereas SEE1 uses English glosses.
Oral Deaf Individuals: deaf individuals who do not use sign language; these individuals rely on their own speech and speechreading abilities to communicate with others.
Bilingual - Bicultural Education (Bi-Bi): an approach in which instruction in the classroom is through ASL and English is taught as a second language. Deaf children are exposed to Deaf Culture and Deaf role models as well as English Culture.
A-Language: One's native or first language; one's mother tongue
B-Language: one's second language acquired by living in a country where that language is spoken or by studying that language formally.
C-Language: a language one can "manage" to comprehend what is spoken/signed however, the individual speaks/signs with a heavy accent, improper grammatical structure and frequent semantic errors.
