ASL - research

This disagreement over the best approach for educating deaf students is not simply a discussion over which language or code is best to use, but rather it represents profound, and often polarized, differences in educational philosophy. That is, specific educational methods are grounded in, and driven by, the philosophy, or metatheory, one subscribes to. Metatheory refers to a way of thinking or a viewpoint about issues (Baars, 1986; Bunge & Ardila, 1987; cited in Paul & Jackson, 1993). The current conflict in deaf education, at the metatheory level, is between the clinical-pathological model (hereafter referred to as the clinical model) and the cultural model. The clinical model represents one point of view, namely, a view in which deafness is characterized as a disability stemming from a biological deficit (i.e., a lack of hearing). Thus, educational goals focus on overcoming, or compensating for, hearing loss so that students can learn to speak, read, and write English. Educational methods used to accomplish this goal include amplification, speech reading, and representing English on the hands (i.e., manually coded English).

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Exceptional-Children/21053234.html