A look into the new bilingual approach at Kelston Deaf Education Centre

1996 •

One of the goals of 1996’s Deaf Awareness Week was to better educate New Zealanders about New Zealand Sign Language, and as part of this, One Network News visited Kelston Deaf Education Centre in Auckland. KDEC which has a new bilingual teaching method using both NZSL and English.

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.

Can you help?

Amanda Everitt

Catherine White

Catherine White

Cheryl Anton (Herd)

Cheryl Anton (Herd)

Eileen Smith

Graeme Kennedy

James Anderson-Pole

James Anderson-Pole

Ryan Cassidy

Simon Holt

Wendy Orellana

Relevant Links

Taonga source:

Television New Zealand Archive

Original format:

VIDEOTAPE BETACAM SP COLOUR CASSETTE

Reference number:

SignDNA – Deaf National Archive New Zealand, TVNZ34-01-TV96

Copyright status:

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Note:

This item has been compressed and/or edited.

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