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…

A small group of interpreters was interviewed with regard to their view of learning ASL and becoming bicultural. A model of identity was then postulated based on Hegel's dialectic (Wheat 2012) of thesis (presuppositions, stereotypes, or theories about ASL and the Deaf community), antithesis (conflicting experiences), and synthesis (new…

The founder of BRIDGES, a program to connect deaf culture and hearing culture, describes her experiences as a hearing woman learning and teaching about the deaf community. She particularly addresses the ways in which the deaf community and culture are ignored by education and health professionals. (SK)

A study involving three elementary students attending a bilingual-bicultural program for students with deafness found that successful strategies, such as using American Sign Language as the language of instruction, balancing direct and indirect teaching, making translation conceptual rather than literal, and using multimodal information,…

Sign Talk Development Project (STDP) is a four-pronged project that grows out of needs identified through the program of Sign Talk Children's Centre (STCC). STCC is a bilingual/bicultural day care for children of deaf parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The center offers programming in two languages, American Sign Language (ASL) and English; and in two…

This is a selection of papers that have appeared in the journal "Sign Language Studies" between 1972 and 1979. The aim is to provide the reader with some knowledge of the world as signers see it. The book is for academic decision-makers, teachers and parents of deaf students, as well as the intellectually curious. Following an introductory essay,…

This digest presents information on bilingual-bicultural education for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The premise of bilingual-bicultural education is that all children who are deaf or hard of hearing should develop communicative competency and that they need to be bilingual in order to function successfully in the family, school, and…

The move toward inclusive education potentially threatens the very heart of the Deaf cultural community, and may be an example of "epistemic violence" where the dominant ideology of equality of access to educational resources actually serves to reproduce structured inequalities. Deaf education has been moving away from a view of deafness as a…

This paper describes Bilingual-Bicultural (BiBi) instructional programs for students with hearing impairments and proposes a model for BiBi instruction which uses parents as partners with instructors to develop the linguistic abilities of hearing-impaired students. In the model, traditionally spoken languages are conveyed via cued speech instead…

The Star School staff of the Engaged Learners project at the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe has completed its fourth year of a 5-year federally-funded program. This project aims to improve language-teaching practices of teachers who work with learners who are deaf by providing training in current bilingual theories and pedagogical…