NEWARK POST — A new program at the Delaware School for the Deaf is expected to pay dividends both here in Newark and in China.
Zhiyuan Hou, a deaf graduate student from China, will spend the next year at DSD teaching the students about Chinese Sign Language and Chinese culture. At the same time, he will learn more about deaf education in the United States and be able to take that knowledge back to his home country.
“It’s a win-win,” said Kathy Johnson, a professor and director of the Confucius Institute at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
Johnson and her colleague, Amy Knopf, are researching deaf education in China and whether learning a second sign language improves cognition for deaf kids like learning a second spoken language does for hearing students.
Hou is one of three Chinese grad students who are interning in American K-12 schools through a pilot program established by St. Cloud State. The others were placed in deaf schools in Minnesota and Iowa.
Read more: Partnership brings Chinese language instruction to Deleware School for the Deaf
