Sociolinguistic Perspectives on the Education of Deaf Children in Inclusion Placements

Most deaf children in the U.S. today (roughly 80 percent) are placed in a mainstream publicschool environment with hearing peers and teachers (Salend, 2001; Schick, Williams, & Bolster, 1999). As deaf children are increasingly being educated in mainstream public school programs, there is a need to assess fully the factors influencing their first and second language acquisition and literacy development as these factors affect a deaf student’s educational success. Many challenges confront educators of deaf students, including diversity in the student population, critical period effects on language acquisition, the nature of linguistic exposure, sociolinguistic aspects of language policy/planning in the classroom, and the effect of the interpreter in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to describe the extensive linguistic, cultural, and educational placement diversity of deaf students, to identify the resulting educational and linguistic constraints of deaf children in inclusion settings using signed language interpreters, and to review current research on outcomes of language acquisition training. Alternative models for improving linguistic and educational outcomes for these students are proposed.