One of the goals of the 1996 Deaf Awareness Week is to better educate New Zealanders about New Zealand Sign Language, and as part of this, One Network News visits Kelston Deaf Education Centre in Auckland.
KDEC has a new bilingual teaching method using both NZSL and English, which started in 1995. Principal Eileen Smith explains how the students learn that the messages they read in English are the same as what they see in NZSL, and so the connections between the two languages are being forged in their minds.
Graeme Kennedy also briefly speaks about the development of the first comprehensive NZSL dictionary that he and his team at Victoria University of Wellington are working on.
In this news clip, we see a Deaf student practising in front of his Deaf peers, for KDEC’s upcoming concert. We also see Cheryl Anton and her colleagues teaching in the two bilingual classrooms.
