Bilingual Instruction Works Even for Deaf Children of Hearing Parents
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We propose that bilingual instruction using ASL and English print is the best instructional approach for all Deaf children, and that the longer DCHP are in an ASL environment, the better their chances are to learn to read and write English fluently. The efficacy of ASL-English print bilingual education is founded on the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (Cummins 1979; 1981; 2006), particularly in the interplay between Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Roessingh (2006) elegantly explains that BICS deals with “the here and now” while CALP deals with “the then and there”, suggesting that CALP involves the use of abstract, cognitively complex language. It is CALP competency that undergirds the development of bilingual skills. The ability to engage in higher order conversations benefits metaphorical thinking and those who can analyze language are best able to map concepts from one language (L1) to another (L2) (Roessingh, Kover, & Wat, 2005). Roessignh (2006) points out that with accessible language modeling, competency in BICS can be acquired within 2 years of exposure. It is generally accepted that it takes about 7 years to develop CALP in any given language (Cummins, 1982). Based on these timeframes, we hypothesize that DCHP can become successful language users in general, and readers and writers of English and other spoken languages specifically, if they are placed in an ASL-English print bilingual education environment long enough and early enough to overcome the impoverished language modeling they receive outside of school.