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Bilingual and Multilingual Education pp 1–15Cite as

Signed Languages in Bilingual Education

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

The glossed concepts bilingual/ism and bilingual education (BE) have been recognized as being simplistic and misrepresentative of the complex, diverse human behaviors that they index. Moving beyond colonially framed monolingual, monoglossic understandings of bounded language systems and recognizing the fluid nature of languaging where more than one language variety, modality, and other resources constitute routine human communication, this chapter presents the place of signed languages (SLs) inside and outside education, as well as social life across time and space. It traces salient developments as well as the erasure and hegemonies related to the position accorded to different language varieties and modalities inside and outside deaf education (DE). This chapter identifies and accounts for the place and meaning of SLs in BE broadly and DE specifically. In addition to presenting an overview of the binary divisions (related to oralism/signing, deaf-normal/hearing, segregation/integration) that have plagued the field as well as research in the domain DE for over a century, this chapter highlights the establishment of a third position in terms of the place and space that is accorded to SLs both across time and space generally, and in BE and in DE research specifically. Significant issues that continue to frame the education and the situation of deaf children and adults and specific paradoxes in the areas of both education and research are up-fronted. The chapter presents key directions for future research taking cognizance of recent discussions in the language and learning sciences more generally.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

    Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta

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  1. Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta
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Correspondence to Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta .

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  1. City University of New York The Graduate Center, New York, New York, USA

    Ofelia Garcia

  2. Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Angel Lin

  3. Faculty of Education, University of Auckland Faculty of Education, Auckland, New Zealand

    Stephen May

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Bagga-Gupta, S. (2016). Signed Languages in Bilingual Education. In: Garcia, O., Lin, A., May, S. (eds) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_12-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_12-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02324-3

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  1. Latest

    Signed Languages in Bilingual Education
    Published:
    23 March 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_12-2

  2. Original

    Signed Languages in Bilingual Education
    Published:
    22 March 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_12-1

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