Advertisement

Advertisement

oralism

[ awr-uh-liz-uhm, ohr- ]

noun

  1. the theory, practice, or advocacy of education for the Deaf chiefly or exclusively through lipreading, training in speech production, and training of residual hearing. Compare manualism.


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of oralism1

First recorded in 1880–85; oral + -ism
Discover More

Compare Meanings

How does oralism compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

Discover More

Example Sentences

But, starting in the early 1880s, oralism, the exclusive use of spoken language to teach deaf children, became widely accepted.

Oralism is the name given to the practise of educating deaf people to use speech and lip-reading rather than sign language.

From BBC

"I got a lot of backlash from certain people in that community because I was promoting oralism."

From BBC

I didn’t even know that there was this controversy between people who signed and people who spoke because I was young, I wasn’t politically motivated, I had never been in that argument, I had never known there was oralism versus sign language.

From Slate

It’s a parallel with deaf education in the late 19th-century, when oralism was forced on deaf students in the belief that this would improve their education.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


oral interpretationoralist