Educating Deaf Children in Two Languages

This chapter describes a study of literacy learning in Deaf children who acquire American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language and learn to read and write English as a second language.1 Literacy can be defined beyond the basic tasks of reading and writing to include the strong connection between language learning and the individual’s thinking, identity, and community. This framework emphasizes the importance of literacy acquisition for all individuals, including deaf people, and the problems that can occur when literacy in this broad sense is impaired. Overall, there is agreement that early exposure to ASL allows deaf children to establish an effective way to communicate and interact with the world around them (Paul & Quigley, 1987). Disagreements arise in how this knowledge should be applied to guide them into reading and writing English. We know that deaf children who grow up in an ASL environment learn ASL in ways analogous to hearing children learning their spoken language (Meier, 1991; Pettito & Marentette, 1991). What we do not know is how deaf children learn to read and write English. There is now growing evidence from case studies to support bilingually focused alternative conceptions and pedagogies as successful in the language and literacy education of deaf children, and that evidence deserves further exploration.