Bilingual Education for the Deaf in South Africa - Can it Work?

Deaf Education in South Africa has reached the point at which inquiry and reflection have become paramount. Education levels remain low with the majority of Deaf students leaving school functionally illiterate, yet this unsatisfactory status quo is manifest in passive consent. Researchers are currently favouring a move toward Bilingual Education for the Deaf, even though the field remains saturated with contentious debates and insufficient evidence to marshal adequate support for one solution. Bilingualism, as an educational paradigm in Deaf Education, acknowledges that the Deaf child's primary language is Sign Language. In addition, the Bilingual approach recognises that the majority of Deaf children (90%) grow up in a hearing community without natural access to their primary language or the natural ability to acquire the spoken language of their family. Consequently, the language of the community/family is accepted as the second language, with the primary focus on second language literacy. This paper will highlight some of the problems in Deaf Education and the subsequent benefits of the bilingual· bicultural approach to teaching Deaf learners. It will also raise crucial questions and concerns which need to be reflected upon and worked through before Bilingual Education (or any other approach) is accepted as the panacea of Deaf Education.