This volume provides a unique cross-disciplinary perspective on the external ecological and internal psycholinguistic factors that determine sign bilingualism, its development and maintenance at the individual and societal levels. Multiple aspects concerning the dynamics of contact situations involving a signed and a spoken or a written language are covered in detail, i.e. the development of the languages in bilingual deaf children, cross-modal contact phenomena in the productions of child and adult signers, sign bilingual education concepts and practices in diverse social contexts, deaf educational discourse, sign language planning and interpretation. This state-of-the-art collection is enhanced by a final chapter providing a critical appraisal of the major issues emerging from the individual studies in the light of current assumptions in the broader field of contact linguistics. Given the interdependence of research, policy and practice, the insights gathered in the studies presented are not only of scientific interest, but also bear important implications concerning the perception, understanding and promotion of bilingualism in deaf individuals whose language acquisition and use have been ignored for a long time at the socio-political and scientific levels.

This volume provides a unique cross-disciplinary perspective on the external ecological and internal psycholinguistic factors that determine sign bilingualism, its development and maintenance at the individual and societal levels. Multiple aspects concerning the dynamics of contact situations involving a signed and a spoken or a written language are covered in detail, i.e. the development of the languages in bilingual deaf children, cross-modal contact phenomena in the productions of child and adult signers, sign bilingual education concepts and practices in diverse social contexts, deaf educational discourse, sign language planning and interpretation. This state-of-the-art collection is enhanced by a final chapter providing a critical appraisal of the major issues emerging from the individual studies in the light of current assumptions in the broader field of contact linguistics. Given the interdependence of research, policy and practice, the insights gathered in the studies presented are not only of scientific interest, but also bear important implications concerning the perception, understanding and promotion of bilingualism in deaf individuals whose language acquisition and use have been ignored for a long time at the socio-political and scientific levels.

This book is the first edited international volume focused on critical perspectives on plurilingualism in deaf education, which encompasses education in and out of schools and across the lifespan. The book provides a critical overview and snapshot of the use of sign languages in education for deaf children today and explores contemporary issues in education for deaf children such as bimodal bilingualism, translanguaging, teacher education, sign language interpreting and parent sign language learning. The research presented in this book marks a significant development in understanding deaf children's language use and provides insights into the flexibility and pragmatism of young deaf people and their families’ communicative practices. It incorporates the views of young deaf people and their parents regarding their language use that are rarely visible in the research to date.

In Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education, volume editors Marc Marschark, Gladys Tang, and Harry Knoors bring together diverse issues and evidence in two related domains: bilingualism among deaf learners - in sign language and the written/spoken vernacular - and bilingual deaf education. The volume examines each issue with regard to language acquisition, language functioning, social-emotional functioning, and academic outcomes. It considers bilingualism and bilingual deaf education within the contexts of mainstream education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in regular schools, placement in special schools and programs for the deaf, and co-enrollment programs, which are designed to give deaf students the best of both educational worlds. The volume offers both literature reviews and new findings across disciplines from neuropsychology to child development and from linguistics to cognitive psychology. With a focus on evidence-based practice, contributors consider recent investigations into bilingualism and bilingual programming in different educational contexts and in different countries that may have different models of using spoken and signed languages as well as different cultural expectations. The 18 chapters establish shared understandings of what are meant by "bilingualism," "bilingual education," and "co-enrollment programming," examine their foundations and outcomes, and chart directions for future research in this multidisciplinary area. Chapters are divided into three sections: Linguistic, Cognitive, and Social Foundations; Education and Bilingual Education; and Co-Enrollment Settings. Chapters in each section pay particular attention to causal and outcome factors related to the acquisition and use of these two languages by deaf learners of different ages. The impact of bilingualism and bilingual deaf education in these domains is considered through quantitative and qualitative investigations, bringing into focus not only common educational, psychological, and linguistic variables, but also expectations and reactions of the stakeholders in bilingual programming: parents, teachers, schools, and the deaf and hearing students themselves.

This book presents the first ever comprehensive overview of national laws recognising sign languages, the impacts they have and the advocacy campaigns which led to their creation. It comprises 18 studies from communities across Europe, the US, South America, Asia and New Zealand. They set sign language legislation within the national context of language policies in each country and show patterns of intersection between language ideologies, public policy and deaf communities’ discourses. The chapters are grounded in a collaborative writing approach between deaf and hearing scholars and activists involved in legislative campaigns. Each one describes a deaf community’s expectations and hopes for legal recognition and the type of sign language legislation achieved. The chapters also discuss the strategies used in achieving the passage of the legislation, as well as an account of barriers confronted and surmounted (or not) in the legislative process. The book will be of interest to language activists in the fields of sign language and other minority languages, policymakers and researchers in deaf studies, sign linguistics, sociolinguistics, human rights law and applied linguistics.

This is the second volume in the series 'Trends in language acquisition research'. The unusual combination in one volume of reports on various different sign languages in acquisition makes this book quite unique.