Bilingualism, Philosophy and Models of

Bilingual education for Deaf students (also known as bilingual-bicultural Deaf education) is an approach to educating deaf children that (a) utilizes a native sign language as the language of instruction; (b) includes opportunities to study that native sign language in terms of grammar and composition; and (c) involves learning a second, majority language (most often a spoken language) in its written form. Bilingual-bicultural education has as its goal the maintenance and mastery of both expressive and receptive sign language skills and reading and writing skills. In practice, it can also include the development of speaking and listening skills. However, it is essential that proficiencies in speaking and listening do not determine the academic success or failure of deaf students.