ABSTRACT
Teaching a second language to students who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing is unique because language learning techniques often disrupt spoken/phonocentric models of bilingual language learning that require speech before learning to read and write. Balanced bilingual educational strategies in education of Deaf and hard-of-hearing students include chaining concepts using American Sign Language (ASL) rather than relying on speech and lip-reading. Rather than focusing on speech as an initial step to learning English, ASL is used to teach reading and writing of English. Five face-to-face interviews with educators at a large Deaf residential school serve to explore issues and prescriptions for teaching language to Deaf students. Five themes are used for discussion: understanding ASL–English bilingualism, the significance of technology in Deaf education, the goals of bilingual language models, how identification plays a role in language learning, and suggestions for ideal ways to teach Deaf students. Limitations and suggestions for future research are offered.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The convention to use the capitalized version of Deaf (often reserved for indicating cultural/language status) has been chosen throughout to honor that Deaf children have a right to Deaf culture and their own accessible language, American Sign Language, even in cases where they have not yet been exposed to it (Cripps, Citation2000; Snoddon, Citation2010).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Darrin J. Griffin
Darrin J. Griffin is an assistant professor and the director of the C&IS Human Communication Research Laboratory in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Alabama.