Have you ever blamed a Deaf child’s errors in written or spoken English on the fact that they know ASL? Have you ever heard a colleague make statements about ASL “influencing” a Deaf child’s English production? Let’s take a look at three common statements and why we should avoid saying them:

“My Deaf students always mix up their pronouns. It must be because of ASL.”

Many other languages use pronouns differently than English does. ASL uses non-gendered pronouns. This means that the sign for “he” is the same at the sign for “she.” The Ghanaian language of Twi does the same. There is one non-gendered pronoun to refer to any person. If you want to inform the listener of the gender, you have to use the person’s name or state “the woman” to clarify.

In French and other romance languages, pronouns take the gender of the object, not the subject. For example, if I am discussing my sister’s dog, I would say “son chien” (his dog). This is because the pronoun follows the gender of the word “dog,” which is masculine. My sister’s gender does not influence the pronoun choice. Or, for a sillier example: as my French-English bilingual cousin stated as a young child, “Emma knows his papa!” Therefore, French speakers or Twi speakers learning English as a second language may make similar pronoun errors to Deaf children.

2. “My Deaf students never use the ‘do’ question properly. It must be because of ASL.”

Many other languages don’t use the “do” question (i.e. “Where do you live?” or “Do you know the time?”). In ASL, one might ask YOU LIKE EAT WHAT? instead of “What do you like to eat?” In Italian, the “do” question is simply created by dropping the subject in the statement form. For example, to turn the statement “Noi abbiamo zucchero” (We have sugar) into a question, one would drop the “we” and ask “Abbiamo zucchero?” (Have sugar?). Notice how there is no need to add a “do” in the question form. This is because the word “have” in Italian has the “we” imbedded into it. Therefore, Italian speakers learning English as a second language may struggle with the “do” question as well.

In French, “do” exists, however it’s a cumbersome phrase (est-ce que). If speaking quickly or informally, one can avoid using it by simply inverting the subject and verb. For example, to ask if a stranger has the time, one might ask “Avez-vous le temps?” (Have-you the time?). French speakers learning English as a second language may attempt to use this shortcut, which doesn’t really work in (American) English.

3. “My Deaf students always forget their articles. It must be because of ASL.”

Other languages have different rules for the use of articles (a, an, the). Russian, for example, doesn’t have articles at all. This may result in a Russian speaker learning English as a second language to drop articles in English, too (i.e. “I have dog”). German has many more articles than English does. An English speaker learning German as a second language may struggle to know when to use the correct article.

Thus, it’s vital to be mindful of “blaming” any student’s English production (written or spoken) on another language. If we, as native English speakers, attempted to learn another language we would probably make mistakes that were influenced by our knowledge of English. There is nothing wrong with that.

So the next time a Deaf child makes an error in English, instead of saying, “Oh, that’s their ASL affecting their English again,” try saying, “I wonder what other languages do that, too.”