Bilingual education for deaf children in Sweden

Kristina Svartholm

109 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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Hearing Impairment and Communication Multilingual Education and Policy Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

In 1981, Swedish Sign Language gained recognition by the Swedish Parliament as the language of deaf people, a decision that made Sweden the first country in the world to give a sign language the status of a language. Swedish was designated as a second language for deaf people, and the need for bilingualism among them was officially asserted. This was reflected in the first bilingual curriculum, introduced in special schools for the deaf and hard of hearing in 1983, which stated that the language of instruction in these schools should be Swedish sign language as well as Swedish, the latter of which, for deaf children, was primarily intended to be in its written form. These provisions were designed to ensure that pupils would be able to develop their bilingualism. In 1994, this curriculum was replaced by a new one that raised the bar even higher. In accordance with this curriculum, schools became responsible for ensuring that all deaf and hard of hearing pupils would be bilingual by the time they completed school. In this paper, I will present details regarding the background of the Swedish Parliament's decision and also compare and discuss the steering documents for the schools in this regard. I will also describe some of the developmental work that was implemented early in schools for the deaf, where teachers collaborated closely with linguistic researchers. This work will be related to contemporary research on sign language linguistics and Swedish as a second language for deaf people. I will then present results from the bilingual approach, as reflected in the leaving certificates of deaf school leavers over the years. Finally, I will briefly discuss the current situation Swedish special schools face today, in which a quickly growing number of deaf children with cochlear implants are applying for admission. Although the need for bilingualism among these children is fully recognised, the attainment of this goal may require schools to adopt different means of instruction.

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References

2003Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language 1993Space in Danish sign language : the semantics and morphosyntax of the use of space in a visual language

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2014Training Literacy Skills through Sign Language 2019Deaf Children as ‘English Learners’: The Psycholinguistic Turn in Deaf Education 2014Sign Language Linguistics 2015Evidence of an association between sign language phonological awareness and word reading in deaf and hard-of-hearing children 2012Deaf Education Policy as Language Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Sweden and the United States 2021Language Standardization in a View ‘from Below’2021Grammars, Dictionaries and Other Metalinguistic Texts in the Context of Language Standardization 2013Literacy Skills among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students and Students with Cochlear Implants in Bilingual/Bicultural Education

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