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

Background

Historically in Zimbabwe, children whose hearing posed significant problems in learning have been called ‘hearing impaired¹’ in official documents and they have been taught speaking and listening skills. This is because speaking and listening have traditionally been considered as desirable for teaching, learning and inclusion into a largely hearing-speaking society. The term ‘hearing impaired’ is not used in this chapter as it implies lack, disability or handicap regarding hearing thereby suggesting that the children want to hear and speak but are impeded and disadvantaged in these noble things that they cannot do. In this chapter on language, the terms ‘deaf’ or D/HH are used to refer to these same children with hearing difficulties. The term deaf is preferred because it does not emphasise what they cannot do and is therefore more suitable in a chapter focussing on what they can do. The view in this chapter is that it is not always the case that people who cannot hear actually want to hear and speak. For many of them, hearing and speaking are unattainable goals which they do not want to strive for. Many people who are deaf can see and sign very well and are therefore not impaired or disabled in this regard. They are therefore better considered as members of a linguistic minority group rather than as people with a disability. The term ‘Deaf’ (with a capital letter D) reflects the identity of these people as a linguistic group, just as the Shona and Zulu people are linguistic groups whose identities are always correctly spelt starting with initial capital letters. However, the term ‘deaf’ rather than ‘Deaf’ is used in this chapter in order to avoid foreclosing identity choices for young children who may not yet have made up their minds to become members of any particular linguistic group. In this light, the bilingual early intervention education strategies discussed in the chapter include both a sign and spoken language(s) in order to avoid prematurely foreclosing any future choices for these young children.