The Experiences of Bilingualism Within the Deaf and the Hearing World: The Views of d/Deaf Young People

Abstract

There has been increasing research that has identified the potential development for children bilingual in two languages of different modalities, such as one spoken and one signed language. This study focused on the social and emotional development of sign bilingualism for Deaf young people using spoken English and British Sign Language. It adopted a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings show that Deaf young people value sign bilingualism for accessing both the ‘Deaf World’ and the ‘Hearing World’. Sign language is imperative for integrating with Deaf peers, and being part of the Deaf culture, which provides a sense of belonging and identity. Participants identified mixed feelings of belonging to the hearing world through shared spoken language, but feeling isolated with a cultural divide.

Keywords:

• Deafness
• deafness
• bilingualism
• sign bilingualism
• sign language
• psychological well-being

Notes

1 Deaf – valuing unique cultural identity; deaf – valuing access to spoken language. For the purposes of this paper the term Deaf will be used throughout to value cultural identity.