This chapter discusses how deaf children acquire language, notably literate skills: how their literacy rates are evaluated and what methods are used for teaching written Italian to deaf pupils in elementary school. The sociolinguistic significance of the turn in favour of sign languages is discussed, preliminary to a focused discussion of deaf educational choices as linguacultural choices often involving inadequate mastery of literacy skills. A close look is taken at what can be considered a positive example of mutual and symmetrical mainstreaming, namely a bilingual approach where the deaf pupil is no longer regarded as ‘disabled’ or ‘deviant’ but only as ‘different’: the writing performance of deaf children in this situation is compared to the acquisition of literacy levels by deaf learners of the same age, situated in a more targeted learning context.
Language Choices in Deaf Education
OCHSE, ELANA
2011-01-01
Abstract
This chapter discusses how deaf children acquire language, notably literate skills: how their literacy rates are evaluated and what methods are used for teaching written Italian to deaf pupils in elementary school. The sociolinguistic significance of the turn in favour of sign languages is discussed, preliminary to a focused discussion of deaf educational choices as linguacultural choices often involving inadequate mastery of literacy skills. A close look is taken at what can be considered a positive example of mutual and symmetrical mainstreaming, namely a bilingual approach where the deaf pupil is no longer regarded as ‘disabled’ or ‘deviant’ but only as ‘different’: the writing performance of deaf children in this situation is compared to the acquisition of literacy levels by deaf learners of the same age, situated in a more targeted learning context.
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