Towards a model of bilingual education for deaf children

The recent upsurge in interest in bilingualism in deaf education is welcome because of its recognition of the role of sign language in the education of deaf children. However, if is inevitable with a subject as complex as bilingualism that there remains a great deal of ignorance and misconception. This has been exacerbated by an element of 'jumping on the bandwagon', with services and schools claiming to offer a bilingual approach whilst not having in place the means to do so. We are fortunate in having access to information on which to base a model or models of bilingual provision for deaf children, whilst acknowledging that there are gaps in our understanding of the complexities of the deaf bilingual learner Part of my work in Leeds and in collaboration with Dr Susan Gregory has been to identify the features of a bilingual model which may form a yard stick for schools and services aiming for bilingual provision. The model proposed here makes a clear distinction between issues to be addressed at the levels of philosophy, policy and approach or practice. Too often, bilingual education is presented solely as an alternative methodology, yet it should be viewed as a way of thinking about deafness and deaf people, society and education. fn this paper, each facet of the model is defined, then, where appropriate, followed by strategic implications for schools and services, these being prepared by an arrow (-->). Examples of the problems or challenges encountered an indicated by a double exclamation mark (!!). The strategies (-->)and challenges (!!) are based on our experiences in Leeds.