Sign+Bilingualism+Approach

One method of communication that teachers may find their students with hearing impairments using in their classroom is sign bilingualism. Teachers should be aware that sign bilingualism "is an approach to the education of deaf children, which uses both the sign language of the Deaf Community and the spoken and written language of the hearing community" (Gregory, Knight, McCracken, Powers, and Watson, 1998, p.88). Sign bilingualism "describes the use of two languages in different modalities" (Gregory, Knight, McCracken, Powers, and Watson, 1998, p.89). Interpreters would still be there to assist students who use sign bilingualism as Sign Language may be the student's first language. The Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth (MEYC) (2009) has an [|education resource guide]that speaks of English as an additional language to those who use American Sign Language (ASL). The resource guide supports the use of sign bilingualism stating "often a focus on developing a student's ASL skills and word knowledge is important in assisting the development of English language skills" (MEYC, 2009, p.39).

The British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (2006) researched an article on sign bilingualism and cochlear implants. The article titled, //[|Sign bilingual education and cochlear implants,]//explains that "sign bilingualism is based on the idea that, as deaf children can potentially easily acquire sign language and may have difficulty in accessing spoken language, they should be given the opportunity to develop sign language" (Gregory, 2006). With that being said, we as teachers need to make sure that opportunities for spoken language and sign language are available.

Teachers need to support this method of communication in their classroom and work with the interpreter to be able to adapt their delivery of teaching in the classroom which compliments sign bilingualism.