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Bilingualism

Bilingualism is conveniently understood as a language phenomenon that involves two spoken languages. Even though bilingualism is probably as old as the first human who was a part of two different language communities, bilingualism as a field of inquiry is a young one. It has been poorly understood for a long time, and partly as a result, it has been a controversial topic in linguistics and in education. “Deaf bilingualism” is a new term for a linguistic phenomenon that was in place as early as the dawn of deaf education. From the perspective of what is commonly understood as related to bilingualism, Deaf bilingualism is unique because it usually refers to a signed language and a written language. There are two other types of bilingualism in which sign language is involved. One involves two signed languages, commonly called sign bilingualism; the other involves a signed language and a spoken language, commonly called bimodal bilingualism. The discussion in this entry is limited to Deaf bilingualism, which refers to the characteristics of bilingualism that define the language experience of the majority of Deaf people who consider themselves bilingual.

The literature on the psycholinguistics of bilingualism concerns different phenomena of bilingualism. Simultaneous bilingualism, which refers to children learning two languages at the same time, is distinguished from sequential bilingualism, which refers to children learning a second language after having learned a first language. Another area of bilingualism concerns the interplay between two languages, and it covers various topics such as the influence of one language on the other, the issues of learning a second language, the societal attitude toward a language learned by children as a first language, and the combined use of both languages, commonly understood as code-switching. Even when bilingualism involves two spoken languages, these issues are still not fully understood, and they are even less understood when it involves a signed language. The literature on the psycholinguistics of various forms of bilingualism in which a signed language is involved is only beginning to emerge.

Becoming Bilingual

The development of Deaf bilingualism is unique in ways that are challenging for various theories related to psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Most deaf people who become bilingual have not followed a straightforward path to becoming bilingual. Furthermore, bilingualism defined as having a signed language as the first language and a written language as a second language raises intriguing questions, such as how bilingualism may be developed, how written language as a second language may be developed without accessing spoken language, and how the elements of the written language are employed in signing.

A small percentage of deaf children are born into Deaf families, in which everyday interaction occurs within a visually based culture through a natural sign language. For these children, the process of language socialization is similar to that of most children; only the modality differs. But for the majority of deaf children who are born to non-deaf parents who do not expect their child to be deaf, early access to sign languages is often absent. Because these children do not hear, they cannot fully participate in the spoken language socialization environment their parents naturally provide. And, because sign languages have been stigmatized historically, Deaf communities have been marginalized. Many deaf children do not have access to learning American Sign Language (ASL) until they reach school age, and it occurs only if they go to school where enough people know and use ASL. For many deaf children, the opportunity to learn ASL occurs later in life in the upper grades or in college when they come into contact with a significant number of signers. In summary, there are three transition points in the life cycle of Deaf individuals when they may be socialized to the sign language community. It may be in the home with a signing family, in school in contact with a sufficient number of signers, or in the Deaf community after the K–12 school years.

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