8.1 ASL vs Manually Coded English: History, Linguistic Status, and Educational Rationale

8.1 ASL vs Manually Coded English: History, Linguistic Status, and Educational Rationale

Quick Answer: The fundamental distinction between American Sign Language (ASL) and Manually Coded English (MCE) is the difference between a natural language and an artificial code. ASL is an autonomous, naturally evolved human language possessing its own visual-spatial phonology, topic-comment syntax, directional verbs, and complex simultaneous morphology completely independent of English. In contrast, MCE refers to a family of artificial, pedagogical manual codes—specifically Seeing Essential English (SEE I), Signing Exact English (SEE II), and Linguistics of Visual English (LOVE)—invented by educators in the early 1970s to represent English grammatical morphemes visually on the hands. While MCE was engineered under the assumption that verbatim manual English would spontaneously produce English reading and writing literacy, empirical research demonstrates that educators and interpreters omit 30% to 50% of bound morphemes at normal speaking speeds (130–180 wpm), and children exposed exclusively to MCE do not internalize it as a natural first language.

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1. Natural Language vs. Artificial Manual Code: Foundational Linguistic Distinctions

For educational interpreters preparing for the EIPA Written and Performance Tests, establishing a rigorous linguistic understanding of communication modes is essential. In educational settings, signing is frequently misunderstood as a single, uniform medium. However, human language and artificial communication codes belong to entirely different cognitive and structural categories.

Characteristics of a Natural Language (American Sign Language)

A natural language emerges spontaneously within a cultural community over generations, shaped by human cognition, communicative interaction, and neurological processing constraints:

• Autonomous Grammatical Architecture: ASL does not derive its grammar, syntax, or morphological rules from spoken English or any other spoken language. It possesses an autonomous linguistic hierarchy spanning phonology (the five parameters: handshape, movement, location, palm orientation, and non-manual signals), morphology, syntax, and discourse pragmatics.
• Non-Linear, Visual-Spatial Organization: Spoken languages are constrained by the linear, temporal nature of the vocal-auditory channel (sounds are produced sequentially one after another). Because ASL operates in a three-dimensional visual-gestural space, it utilizes simultaneous, layered morphological structures. A single sign production can simultaneously convey the semantic root, the grammatical subject, the direct or indirect object, aspectual duration, manner of movement, and emotional affect through facial non-manual markers.
• Organically Evolved Community Heritage: ASL evolved organically through the convergence of early indigenous sign varieties (such as Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, Henniker Sign Language, and Sandy River Sign Language) with Old French Sign Language (LSF) brought to the United States in 1817 by Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. It reflects the shared identity, cultural values, and cognitive processing of the American Deaf community.
• Formal Linguistic Recognition: Following the seminal research of Dr. William C. Stokoe at Gallaudet College in 1960 (Sign Language Structure), formal linguistic science confirmed that ASL satisfies every universal criterion of human natural language.

Characteristics of an Artificial Manual Code (Manually Coded English)

An artificial manual code is a contrived, deliberately engineered communication system designed by an individual or committee to visually map an existing spoken language:

• Borrowed Lexicon Bound to Foreign Syntax: MCE systems take signs borrowed from ASL, strip them of their native visual-spatial grammar, and force them into the rigid linear word order (Subject-Verb-Object) and grammatical conventions of spoken English.
• Linear Articulatory Burden: Rather than using simultaneous spatial inflections, MCE represents English grammatical morphemes sequentially. To say the English word "unhappiness", an MCE signer cannot use facial expressions or morphological modifications; they must sign the invented prefix UN-, followed by the root sign HAPPY, followed by the invented suffix -NESS in strict chronological sequence.
• Pedagogical, Engineered Purpose: MCE systems were not created by a linguistic community for cultural communication. They were engineered in educational laboratories and classrooms by hearing and deaf educators during the early 1970s as instructional tools to teach English reading, writing, and grammar to deaf children.

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2. Historical Roots: The 1970s Total Communication Era and the Genesis of MCE

To understand why multiple competing manual English systems exist in American schools, educational interpreters must understand the historical crisis in deaf education during the mid-twentieth century.

   1880 Milan Conference (Oralism Dominates; Sign Banned in Schools)
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   1965 Babbidge Report (Reveals 100 Years of Oralist Failure; Median Reading Grade: 3.5)
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   1967–1970 Total Communication Movement (Roy Holcomb; "Use Any Modality Necessary")
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         ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
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   1966/1971 SEE I       1972 SEE II       1971/1972 LOVE
   (David Anthony)     (Gerilee Gustason)  (Denis Wampler)
   • Radical word-roots • 2-of-3 Rule       • Stokoe notation
   • Morphemic radicals • 70+ bound affixes • Structural code

The 1965 Babbidge Report and the Collapse of Pure Oralism

For nearly a century following the infamous 1880 Congress of Milan, American deaf education was dominated by pure oralism—the dogmatic enforcement of spoken English, speechreading, and auditory training to the strict exclusion of all manual signing. In 1965, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare commissioned the Babbidge Committee to conduct an exhaustive national assessment of the educational attainment of deaf youth.

The findings of the Babbidge Report (1965) shocked educational policymakers:

• After a century of pure oralist pedagogy, the median reading comprehension level of deaf high school graduates nationwide was at or below the third-to-fourth grade level.
• Over 80% of deaf adults were employed in unskilled manual labor, reflecting catastrophic educational underachievement.
• Speech and speechreading skills among profoundly deaf students were overwhelmingly non-functional for complex academic learning.

The Babbidge Report forced the educational establishment to concede that denying deaf children visual communication was an unmitigated pedagogical failure.

Roy Holcomb and the Total Communication Philosophy

In the late 1960s, Roy Holcomb, a deaf educator in California, formulated the philosophy of Total Communication (TC). Holcomb defined TC not as a specific sign language or methodology, but as a flexible pedagogical philosophy that advocated using every available communication mode—including formal sign language, manual fingerspelling, speech, speechreading, residual hearing amplification, gestures, reading, and writing—to guarantee that the deaf child receives full communication access.

While Holcomb intended Total Communication to include natural sign language, public school administrators and hearing educators quickly narrowed TC into a rigid pedagogical practice: Simultaneous Communication (SimCom)—speaking spoken English while simultaneously signing manual representations of English words.

The Proliferation of MCE Systems: SEE I, SEE II, and LOVE

Educators in the early 1970s argued that natural ASL could not be used for SimCom because its grammar did not match spoken English syntax. Believing that visual exposure to English morphology was the missing key to English literacy, several groups created competing manual English codes:

1. Seeing Essential English (SEE I / ESSENTIAL ENGLISH):

   • Developed in 1966 and published in 1971 by David Anthony, an educator of the deaf in California.
   • Morphemic Radical Principle: Anthony theorized that English words should be broken down into their fundamental etymological and syllabic morphemes. In SEE I, compound words and complex words were analyzed into component radicals regardless of modern semantic coherence. For example:
     • The word butterfly was signed as BUTTER + FLY.
     • The word carpet was signed as CAR + PET.
     • The word understand was signed as UNDER + STAND.
   • This radical decomposition resulted in visual representations that were semantically baffling to deaf children and native signers.

2. Signing Exact English (SEE II):

   • Developed in 1972 by Dr. Gerilee Gustason, Esther Zawolkow, and Donna Pfetzing.
   • Gustason and colleagues, who were originally collaborators with David Anthony, split from the SEE I project due to Anthony's extreme morphemic radicalism.
   • SEE II sought a compromise: it retained conventional ASL base signs for common concepts while instituting the Two-out-of-Three (2/3) Rule (sound, spelling, meaning) and inventing more than 70 bound affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to represent English morphology verbatim.
   • Because of aggressive marketing, comprehensive textbooks, and teacher workshops, SEE II became the dominant MCE system adopted by public school districts across the United States.

3. Linguistics of Visual English (LOVE):

   • Developed in 1971 and published in 1972 by Denis Wampler.
   • LOVE was designed to parallel SEE I's morphemic structure but utilized William Stokoe's linguistic notation system (cheremic symbols) to transcribe signs. Wampler argued that symbols based on Stokoe's parameters would provide a more precise visual-orthographic bridge to English.
   • LOVE failed to gain widespread adoption due to the steep learning curve required for teachers and parents to master Stokoe notation.

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3. The Educational Rationale: The English Literacy Hypothesis

The fundamental pedagogical premise underlying all Manually Coded English systems is known in educational linguistics as the MCE English Literacy Hypothesis:

   The Traditional MCE Hypothesis (Flawed Premise):
   Auditory English Access Blocked by Deafness
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   Encode Verbatim English Morphology on the Hands (MCE)
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   Deaf Child Sees Every Article, Tense, Prefix, Suffix, and Word Order
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   Direct Visual Internalization of English Grammar System
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   Spontaneous Emergence of Grade-Level Reading Comprehension & Writing

The Core Assumptions of the MCE Movement

Proponents of MCE (such as Gustason and Anthony) operated under four core assumptions:

1. Modality Deficit Theory: Hearing children learn English effortlessly because they hear English spoken around them all day; therefore, deaf children fail to learn English solely because English grammar is invisible to their eyes.
2. Verbatim Modeling: If an educator visually models every English inflection—every auxiliary verb (am, is, are, was, were), article (a, an, the), preposition, tense marker (-ed), and progressive suffix (-ing)—the child's brain will absorb the grammatical structure of English naturally through visual input.
3. Rejection of ASL as a Literacy Foundation: In the 1970s, educators erroneously assumed that because ASL has a different grammatical structure than English, early exposure to ASL would create "syntactic interference" and corrupt the child's ability to write English sentences.
4. One Sign per English Morpheme: Proponents believed that eliminating idioms, spatial referencing, and multi-directional signs in favor of linear, one-to-one word equivalents would create cognitive consistency between visual signing and printed English text.

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4. Empirical Psycholinguistic Research on MCE Outcomes

Over five decades of psycholinguistic and educational research—conducted by prominent scholars including Dr. Brenda Schick, Kevin Williams, Dr. Sam Supalla, Dr. Claire Ramsey, and Dr. Pat Siple—have comprehensively evaluated the validity of the MCE Literacy Hypothesis. The scientific findings revealed severe cognitive, neuromuscular, and linguistic breakdowns in practice.

1. Neuromuscular Speed Limits and Morpheme Omission Rates

A fundamental mismatch exists between the human vocal tract and the manual articulators (arms, wrists, fingers):

• Articulatory Mechanics: Spoken English is articulated through tiny, rapid muscle movements of the vocal folds, tongue, lips, and velum, effortlessly generating 130 to 180 words per minute (and exceeding 200 wpm during fast academic lectures).
• The Articulatory Burden of MCE: Natural ASL conveys high information density through simultaneous spatial structures (compressing a sentence into 2–3 multi-morphemic signs). MCE, however, forces the signer to produce linear, sequential movements for every single syllable and affix. To sign the sentence "The girls were playing happily in the park", an MCE signer must execute 14 discrete manual sign units!
• The 30% to 50% Morpheme Omission Reality: Research by Brenda Schick and Kevin Williams at Boys Town National Research Hospital, alongside studies by Sam Supalla and Marilyn Johnson, demonstrated that when teachers and educational interpreters attempt to speak and sign MCE simultaneously at normal instructional rates, they consistently drop 30% to 50% of bound morphemes, verb inflections, and articles.
• Linguistic Distortion: Because the hands cannot move fast enough to match the tongue, interpreters involuntarily drop the very morphological markers (e.g., -ed, -s, -ing, the) that MCE was specifically invented to display! The deaf student does not receive a complete visual model of English; they receive an ungrammatical, fragmented stream of isolated root signs.

2. Failure of Natural First Language Internalization

In landmark studies, Dr. Sam Supalla investigated deaf children raised in Total Communication programs who were exposed exclusively to MCE from infancy:

• Linguistic Restructuring: Supalla discovered that deaf children did not internalize MCE as their first language. Instead, the children's innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD) actively rejected the linear, sequential affixes. The children systematically dropped the invented suffixes and spontaneously began converting root signs into spatial, multi-directional configurations resembling natural sign language grammar.
• Inability to Form Internalized Mental Grammar: Because MCE violates the cognitive and perceptual principles of visual-gestural processing, children cannot use it to construct a robust linguistic foundation. Without an accessible natural language, children exposed exclusively to MCE frequently suffer from emergent forms of Language Deprivation Syndrome (LDS).

3. Literacy and Academic Outcomes: MCE vs. ASL Bilingualism

Did fifty years of MCE close the deaf literacy achievement gap? Empirical evidence is conclusive:

• No Superiority Over Natural Sign: Decades of standardized reading assessments confirm that students educated through MCE do not read significantly better than students educated through oral methods, with average reading levels stagnating between the 3rd and 4th grade.
• The ASL-English Bilingual Advantage: In contrast, psycholinguistic research (Cummins, Mayberry, Strong, Prinz) proves that deaf children who acquire ASL as a solid first language (L1) achieve significantly higher English reading comprehension and writing literacy. Conceptual fluency and cognitive scaffolding established in a fully accessible visual language transfer directly into second-language (L2) reading skills.

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5. The Visual Communication Continuum

In contemporary K-12 educational environments, educational interpreters encounter communication modes arrayed across a wide sociolinguistic spectrum. Understanding where each system falls on this continuum is vital for the EIPA Written Exam:

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6. Realistic K-12 Classroom Scenarios

Scenario A: Elementary Reading Instruction (The MCE Cognitive Mismatch)

In a 2nd-grade inclusion classroom, the teacher conducts a shared reading lesson from a storybook featuring the sentence: "The little kittens jumped quietly onto the chair."

• Classroom Dynamic: The student's IEP specifies an MCE / SEE II communication mode. The teacher reads aloud at a brisk narrative pace.
• Interpreter Execution Challenge: To produce SEE II verbatim, the educational interpreter must execute 11 discrete sign units in linear sequence: THE + LITTLE + CAT + -S + JUMP + -ED + QUIET + -LY + ON + TO + THE + CHAIR. At the teacher's speaking rate (150 wpm), the interpreter cannot physically articulate the affixes, inadvertently dropping the past tense -ED and the adverbial suffix -LY.
• Student Confusion: The 7-year-old deaf student, whose conceptual processing is visual-spatial, misses the past-tense relationship because the dropped affixes leave the sentence stripped of morphological markers. During independent writing, the student writes: "Cat jump chair."
• Interpreter Action: The interpreter notes the student's receptive confusion and collaborates with the Teacher of the Deaf (TOD) to explain how the rapid lecture delivery created morphemic omissions, recommending visual printed sentence strips and graphic organizers during literacy intervention.

Scenario B: High School AP Biology Lecture (Lecture Velocity and Sign Breakdown)

In an 11th-grade Advanced Placement Biology lecture, the teacher discusses cellular respiration: "Mitochondria synthesize adenosine triphosphate by transferring electrons through the inner membrane."

• Linguistic Clash: The teacher speaks at an accelerated academic rate of 170 words per minute. An interpreter attempting to use a verbatim manual English code faces total articulatory breakdown when trying to manually affix complex Latinate roots (synthesize, transferring).
• Strategic Adaptation: Recognizing that literal manual English encoding would result in severe message lag (decalage) and 50% morpheme loss, the interpreter shifts to Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE): utilizing the base ASL sign for CREATE/MAKE with the fingerspelled English term A-T-P, establishing the spatial locus for the MITOCHONDRIA INNER MEMBRANE, and using directional handling classifiers to visually depict the transfer of electrons.
• Pedagogical Outcome: The deaf student fully grasps the biochemical process because the conceptual scientific relationship is made visually coherent, rather than obscured by a fragmented blur of dropped manual affixes.

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7. Exam Traps & Strategic Distinctions

[!WARNING] Exam Trap 1: Conflating Natural Language with Artificial Codes. The EIPA Written Test frequently includes distractors categorizing SEE II or SEE I as "dialects" or "forms of American Sign Language." This is linguistically false. ASL is a distinct, natural language; SEE I and SEE II are engineered manual codes designed to visually represent the English language.

[!CAUTION] Exam Trap 2: Believing MCE Produces Superior Literacy Outcomes. Test items often ask whether empirical research supports the premise that MCE improves English reading scores over ASL bilingualism. Candidates must remember: decades of psycholinguistic research show that MCE does not deliver superior reading outcomes and often leads to linguistic confusion due to heavy morpheme omission during instruction.

[!NOTE] Exam Trap 3: The 100% Fidelity Myth. Never select an answer choice asserting that a skilled educational interpreter can produce 100% of MCE affixes, articles, and morphemes during rapid, authentic spoken lectures. Psycholinguistic research proves that even expert interpreters drop 30% to 50% of grammatical inflections under normal classroom pacing.