Deaf Women’s Use of Sign Language and Deaf Identity: Focusing on Growth Over Time

1. Deaf Identity and Acquiring of Sign Language

The Deaf identity development theory (Glickman, 1996) define how Deaf individuals identify with or do not identify with Deaf culture and the Deaf community. This theory categorizes Deaf identity from a cultural perspective into four types: Hearing identity, immersion identity, marginal identity, and bicultural identity. Through this, it helps to understand how Deaf individuals identify with the Deaf community and Deaf culture. Hearing identity is characterized by viewing Deaf individuals as inferior to hearing people, whereas immersion identity focuses on viewing Deaf individuals as central and considers hearing people as incorrect. Marginal identity tends to involve a lack of clear belonging to either the Deaf or hearing communities and often results in maladjustment. Bicultural identity respects both the Deaf and hearing communities and strives to adopt a balanced perspective that embraces the cultures of both. It can be seen that perceptions of sign language and Deaf culture can vary depending on which identity a Deaf individual strongly possesses. According to Fischer (2000), marginal identity is perceived as a very negative identity, while bicultural identity is regarded as the most positive and ideal Deaf identity.

If a Deaf person learns sign language and has a positive attitude towards it, they will likely form good relationships with other people, which can be assumed to influence the formation of their Deaf identity. According to Nikolaraizi and Hadjikakou (2006), identity is a socially constructed process, which is being shaped by past and present experiences. Kwak et al. (2004) argued that the concept of ‘Deaf’ changes according to the social acceptance of sign language, and thus the rights to language and culture of Deaf people should be actively asserted. Lapinski et al. (2015) stated that Deaf identity is formed by satisfaction and pride in sign language and Deaf culture, and that Deaf students with a positive self-view (i.e., a strong Deaf identity) have better school adaptation and academic performance compared to those experiencing identity confusion. Additionally, Deaf individuals who act independently and pioneer their lives based on their Deaf identity tend to be employed in professional fields for extended periods.

Despite the importance, there is a significant lack of research on the relationsship between Deaf identity and the perception of sign language. According to Park and Nam (2022), a positive attitude towards sign language among Deaf individuals plays a significant role in establishing Deaf identity and recognizing Deaf culture as equal to hearing culture. However, because this study shows the overall trend among variables, there is a need to analyze in depth through qualitative research how attitudes towards sign language change during an individual’s growth process and how this affects identity formation and cultural awareness. One exception to this is Kim’s (2021) qualitative study on sign language and Deaf identity. Based on individual in-depth interviews, she showed that the self-awareness of ‘Deaf’ forms into an identity in the perception of Deaf individuals, the acceptance of language and community naturally follows as a result of this awareness. However, since Kim’s (2021) study did not address the educational experiences of Deaf women, this study aims to explore what transitions Deaf women experienced while learning sign language at Deaf schools and how these experiences influenced the formation of their Deaf identity.

2. Deaf Women, Deaf Identity and Sign Language

A Deaf woman has traditionally been treated as a subject of disability and viewed primarily from the perspective of a social minority. According to Najarian (2008), most Deaf women are raised with an emphasis on oral communication centered around hearing people, which not only delays their acceptance of themselves as Deaf but also causes them to grow up experiencing social exclusion. While both Deaf women and Deaf men navigate similar challenges in acquiring sign language and forming their identities within Deaf culture, research (Petersen, 2018) indicates that there are nuanced differences influenced by factors such as early linguistic exposure, socialization patterns, and access to role models. They found that girls often had earlier and more consistent exposure to language, leading to stronger linguistic skills and a deeper integration into cultural norms. Despite the importance of exploring the relationship between language acquisition and identity, there has been a lack of research on how Deaf women learn sign language through education and develop their Deaf identity. Unlike intellectual, psychiatric or physical disabilities, which are ‘visible’ from the outside, the difficulties of Deaf individuals are not recognized as disabilities because they are not visible. This makes it difficult for them to seek help from others. Therefore, for Deaf individuals to adapt to the external environment, they need to define themselves as a linguistic minority and recognize themselves as having a disability. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the process by which Deaf women actively establish their Deaf identity, moving away from seeing themselves as disabled individuals in social interactions. Through this, I aim to examine the process by which Deaf women negotiate their Deaf / Deaf identities and transform their identity from ‘Deaf’ to ‘Deaf’ within a social context.

3. Research questions

This study explores the process by which Deaf women establish their identity through the experience of sign language acquisition. The research questions are as follows:

First, what were the Deaf women’s educational experiences related to sign language acquisition?

Second, how did Deaf women’s educational experiences related to Deafness affect their social relationships and Deaf identity?

1. Participants

The paritipants were five Deaf females who use Korean sign language as their native language. They were all women, who varied in age from 34 to 52. They all had congenital hearing impairments. Except for one person, they grew up in hearing families. All respondents had experienced a mix of oral and manual education. Four of them had gone to a college for the hearing for their entire university experiences. Only one attended a college, which had services for the Deaf students. All research participants had hearing impairments before acquiring language. They all have a college degree or higher and work as teachers at schools for the Deaf or as sign language interpreters. The general information of the participants is presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Participants’ information

2. Procedure

This study was conducted based on life history interviews. They were recruited through personal contacts and snow ball sampling. I informed them via email about my research and mentioned that I am hearing and learning sign language. Additionally, a certified national sign language interpreter attended and provided sign language interpretation. Due to the close relationship between the research participants and the sign language interpreter, a comfortable atmosphere was created for the participants to speak freely. There were over 2~3 meetings per participant from April 2023 to May 2024 to listen to the overall life stories of Deaf women, their perceptions of sign language, Deaf identity, and Deaf culture, The interviews lasted 2 hours in average. Additionally, according to Coleman (2020), the place of an in-depth interview holds significant importance. Since the place creates an atmosphere where knowledge is shared, the interview was first conducted in a restaurant to create a comfortable environment and encourage participants to talk freely about their daily lives. Food has the effect of unconsciously triggering memories about one’s life and experiences, thereby facilitating diverse discussions about their lives. After the meal, three questions related to sign language acquisition and identity were presented and responded to in a café.

To explore the perspectives of Deaf individuals on the relationship between acquiring sign language and Deaf identity, semi-structured interviews were conducted. According to Bogdan and Biklen (1998), the in-depth semi-structured interview format provides an opportunity for participants to respond to the interview questions freely from their own point of view.

3. Development of in-depth semi-structured interview questions

The questions were developed based on previous studies (McIlroy & Storbeck, 2011; Najarian, 2008) to facilitate discussions about the participants’ experiences related to specific topics. Three questions were developed, as Table 2. The first question is about how “Deaf” made you feel as a child and when and how you learned sign language. The second question is about school experiences and educational impact after learning sign language. The third question focused on how learning sign language has changed for them and how it has transformed their Deaf identity. At the end of interviews, the author checked out if they were satisfied with their respenses or needed to add anything more to their narratives. The five participant have been assigned pseudonym to protect their identity. Before presenting these three questions, in the introduction of the study, participants were asked to freely talk about significant experiences that came to mind from their lives so far, and to talk about their current hobbies. These open-ended questions were presented to create a comfortable atmosphere and encourage natural interactions.

Table 2.

Questions of semi-structured interviews

4. Analysis

The data of life histories were analyzed following two steps based on the previous research (McIlroy & Storbeck, 2011). First, the data were organized into categories based on “content-based themes” around Deaf identity narratives. The second step involved a critical discourse analysis (CDA) reading of the interview texts to further explore each participant’s narratives within the context of Deaf identity development. CDA has the advantage of integrating perspectives from linguistics, psychology, and sociology to examine how language reflects and perpetuates power relations in society. This study employed the method of CDA to analyze the process by which Deaf women, who are often treated as social minorities, acquire sign language, experience education, and grow with bicultural identity and self-esteem, rather than remaining minority language users. The interview content of this study was reviewed by two sign language education experts.

1. Being Deaf and Acquiring Sign Language

The experiences of the Deaf women in this study were somewhat similar, Learning their native language and attending a Deaf school developed their pride and they consider themselves bicultural identity of being Deaf.

“A: I think sign language is a beautiful language. When people use spoken Korean, they often lack expression, which makes it seem very boring. Sign language uses facial expressions, so it can convey not only meaning but also emotions effectively. My husband and children are hearing, but they understand my identity. The children grew up watching my husband and me communicate in sign language from a young age, so they are good at it.”

“B: I have never thought much about being Deaf. However, there have been times when being Deaf was inconvenient.”

“C: It was strange because everyone else in my family could hear it, but I couldn’t. I even thought my ears were blocked, so I once painfully poked my ears with a cotton swab. Learning sign language felt like an animal that didn’t know how to communicate, being trapped alone in a cave, and then finally coming out into the world. When I was young, I often felt like an animal that couldn’t speak, but after learning sign language, I finally felt like I had become a human being.”

“D: When I was young, the emphasis on oral education under the ideology of auditory-oralism was very strong. I first learned sign language when I entered elementary school. I could learn sign language more quickly and enjoyably than oral communication. In the school for the Deaf, there were many senior students, so I could quickly learn sign language. Sign language is the center of my life. Except for me, my entire family is hearing, but by learning sign language, I was able to express what I wanted more precisely and in detail. When I was young and didn’t know sign language, I would just point and say to my mom, ‘Give me this, give me that.’ But after learning sign language, I became better at understanding Korean spoken language words and was able to accurately specify what I wanted.”

2. School experience

The second question focuses on the impact of school on Deaf identity development.

“D: My 6th grade teacher at the school for the Deaf was very good at sign language, and he was strict with us in sign language education and curriculum. He would give us corporal punishment by slapping our calves if we didn’t understand sign language. I was afraid of corporal punishment, so I worked hard to learn sign language and studied hard. It was the first time I understood math/science since grade 6, and it made me think about my identity. However, even though I understood math, when I studied at a regular university, it was difficult for me to ask for help because of my introverted personality, so I struggled a lot while studying alone. It was difficult to ask for help from the young people around me. I was very frustrated, and I cried a lot. However, I always tried again and never gave up. ”

“E: When I entered elementary school, I was able to learn sign language. My family members, except for me, are all hearing and did not know sign language. When I entered the school for the Deaf, I was very happy to learn sign language, express myself, and make friends. When I was with my family, I was introverted and always felt stifled. However, when I went to the school for the Deaf, I had a lot of fun spending time with my friends. At the school for the Deaf, I became an extroverted and proactive child, and I also started studying hard.”

3. Deaf identity

The Deaf identity development focues on how the partipants perceive and understand themselves and how they went through a transition of identity. Based on pervious research (McIlroy & Storbeck, 2011), I let them describe themselves as having identity that was either 1) culturally hearing, 2) culturally Deaf, 3) an ambivalent identity, and 4) a bicultural Deaf.

“B: I hadn’t really thought about sign language in relation to my identity until now. I was taught sign language by my parents from a young age, so it came naturally to me, and I saw it as a tool to communicate with others. However, as a Deaf person, I have sometimes felt that it was difficult to communicate with others. I’ve had some trauma, and I’ve experienced depression. I think it would be difficult for a Deaf person to understand my life story. I think a lot of effort should be made by the hearing person to communicate with the Deaf person.” [a culturally Deaf]

“D: My family, except for me, was all hearing. My parents and siblings did not know sign language. Growing up, I often felt alone at home. My siblings did not wear hearing aids, but I had to wear one and go to speech therapy. My way of studying was different from my siblings, and they always came home late from school. I gradually became a quieter child. As I went to college and grew older, my introverted nature became more pronounced. However, after getting married, having children, and raising them, I realized I needed to embrace my identity as a Deaf person. Teaching my children sign language and going through many trials and errors in the process of raising them made me more proactive as a Deaf woman. I am very pleased that my current family understands each other’s identities.” [a bicultural Deaf]

“E: While attending a university for hearing people and working, I experienced depression. It was hard to keep up with my college classes. After marrying my Deaf husband, we had hearing children, and it was challenging to communicate with them during their teenage years. My eldest daughter, perhaps remembering my struggle with depression, makes me happy by studying very hard and planning to major in psychological therapy in college. When my son went through adolescence, he fought a lot with my husband, and I, as a mother, often supported him. Communicating with my children in sign language makes me realize that I am Deaf.” [a bicultural Deaf]