Oralism, also known as the German method, is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech. Oralism and its contrast, manualism, manifest differently in deaf education and are a source of controversy for involved communities.
History
Middle ages
During the Middle Ages, there were attempts to force deaf people to speak by putting hot coals in their mouths.
16th and 17th century
Widespread efforts focused on teaching deaf people to speak can be traced back to the 16th century in Europe. borrowing the manual alphabet from Ponce. Physician Jean Marc Gaspard Itard working at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris conducted, according to his successor Prosper Menière, "painful, barbaric, absurd and useless"
19th century
According to the Darwinian theory, sign languages (and thus their users) were considered to be at a lower stage of evolution than spoken languages.
In the 1850s, Jacob Rodrigues Pereira's grandsons, Émile and Isaac Pereire along with Isaac's son Eugène, wanted to redeem their grandfather's image and revive his methods of lip-reading and spoken language. In 1875 they established the J. R. Pereire Society with the aim of "promot[ing] the teaching of speech and lipreading, by speech, to the deaf."
Oralism came into popular use in the United States around the late 1860s.
Schools
In 1867, the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first school to start teaching in this manner. Manual language soon became a less popular choice for deaf education due to the new Darwinist perspective.
Policy
In relation to the early 16th-century oralism in Spain, 19th-century oralists viewed oral language as a superior form of communication. were popular supporters of oralism and its impact on deaf education and services. Until the end of the 19th century, many educators of deaf America were deaf themselves. However, oralists like Alexander Graham Bell began to wield increasing influence. Bell had no opinion regarding whether or whom deaf people should marry. By contrast, negative eugenicists sought to stop the spread of "bad genes" through invasive measures such as mandatory placement in institutions or sterilization. Bell believed oralism was "an attractive option to sterilization". To Bell, implementation of oralism meant the possibility of a mainstream and "normal" life for deaf individuals. After the Milan conference, the Deaf community referred to this time in history as "the dark ages for deaf education in America". Some strategies, such as Total Communication or SimCom, saw classes conducted in a mixture of spoken and signed English with the teacher signing along, in English word order as they delivered their lecture. For example, is, was and the, which are not used in sign, were spelled out by the teachers using the manual alphabet. Recent research has demonstrated that an oral education using Listening and Spoken Language can provide most deaf children with spoken language skills that are equivalent to those of their hearing peers if using a cochlear implant, which is a hotly debated device in the Deaf community.
===Oral schools===<!-- Are there others outside the US? -->
Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech: focus on helping deaf and hard of hearing children develop spoken English and listening skills. The school's goal is to prepare students for the mainstream setting.
Cleary School: focus on ASL and spoken English in its elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. Their Pre-K focuses on spoken English.
Memphis Oral School for the Deaf: teaching children to develop their spoken and written English skills by teaching children in spoken English.
Moog Center for Deaf Education: provides listening and spoken language services to children who are deaf or hard of hearing, ages birth to early elementary years, and their families.
Tucker Maxon School: a spoken-language early intervention and Pre-K through 5th grade educational institution based in Portland, Oregon. Enrollment includes children who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as children with typical hearing in an inclusive, co-enrolled, mutually beneficial classroom environment. The school's mission is to teach "deaf and hearing children to listen, talk, learn, and achieve excellence together".
Efficacy
Recent studies from the USA have demonstrated that learning a sign language before learning to speak does not hinder one's ability to acquire a spoken language.
With cochlear implants
There have been few quantitative evaluations regarding the long-term outcomes of oral programs for deaf individuals, but those that do exist tend to study this in relation to children with cochlear implants. One study compared the English development of deaf children with a cochlear implant versus what the English development might have been without the implant. English development was greater and more successful for the implanted deaf child than that of the non-implanted child based on the implementation of a predictive model. The predictive model employs age, residual hearing, and communication mode used by the child to predict the language development. Although deaf implanted children are already at a disadvantage for English development when compared to their hearing counterparts, the implant, on average, reduced what could have been an even larger deficit had the child not been implanted (based on the predictive model). The authors recommend implanting the child as early as possible.
The studies did not consider how a non-implanted child exposed to a signed language and a bilingual/bicultural education could develop English skills in relation to a hearing child's English development. Multiple studies find that by ensuring a deaf child has access to American Sign Language, their overall academic performance is better than those who are not.
There also was no accurate predictor of oralism's success in the classroom.
Without cochlear implants
Communication in oral-deaf students without cochlear implants is typically less frequent and less complex than hearing peers of the same age. These expressed communications are less clear than that of their hearing peers. Linguistically, these communications are typical of the language skills seen much earlier in their hearing counterparts. Additionally, oral-deaf children often used manual gestures/signs simultaneously or in addition to vocalizations during expressive communications at home. In fact, compared to their hearing counterparts, the deaf individuals showed an increased rate of written word processing skills as they increased in age. Altogether, this research provided evidence contrary to the belief that spoken skills are critical to the development of reading skills, and further proposes that educational approaches should include a stronger focus on building awareness of written language forms separate from the related aural aspects.
It is reported by some that deaf children in an oral setting may feel depressed, anxious or experience aloneness and embarrassment.