Multilingual Ability Among Deaf Students in Multicultural Education Contexts: Policies and Principles for Teaching

The chapter intends to provide a conceptual basis for bilingual educators who filter their understanding of deafness through the socio-cultural lens of deafness. To do this, various types of simultaneous and sequential bilingualism en route to bilingual education for young deaf children are explored in relation to the language choices of their parents and educators. In light of these varied routes, the chapter discusses a typology of bilingual education ranging from weak forms aimed at assimilating signing deaf children into majority language and culture to strong forms focussing on development and maintenance of sign language and cultural pluralism.