Manually Coded English - Manually Coded English in Education

Manually Coded English in Education

The different forms of Manually Coded English were originally developed for use in the education of deaf children, as their literacy in written English has been typically low compared to their hearing peers. This educational method was popularised by Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Epee who in the 1790s developed a method using hand-signs to teach a form of the French language to deaf children. Education is still the most common setting where Manually Coded English is used; not only with deaf students, but also children with other kinds of speech or language difficulties.

The use of MCE in deaf education is controversial. Contemporary deaf education can favor one of three streams — sign language, MCE, and oralism — or a combination of two or all three. Some opponents of MCE note that the use of MCE often occurs with an attempt to deny or replace the natural languages of the deaf community, which are seen as retarding the child's chances of acquiring of 'good English'. Conversely, these opponents argue that to deny a deaf child access to a natural sign language is to deny the child access to language in general — that exposing a deaf child to an awkward, unnatural coding of an oral language is no substitute for fundamental natural language acquisition — and that a child must be fully exposed to natural language early in order have the best command of any language later. (That is, a deaf child must be fully exposed to a sign language, and denying this exposure prevents the learning of language at the age when it is crucial for mental development.) Also, they argue that the supplanting of native languages is a form of colonialism. In the manualism vs. oralism debate, some forms of MCE are opposed by oralists who believe that even manual English lessens the motivation for children to learn to speak and speechread. Within the signing Deaf Community in the UK use of manually coded English in social settings outside of education is sometimes regarded as "old fashioned" and characteristic of older people (who grew up during the repression of sign languages in the educational system).