How Can You Talk about Bilingual Education of the Deaf If You Do Not Teach Sign Language as a First Language?

Abstract

This chapter is focused on (1) innovative practices for teaching Greek Sign Language as a first language and (2) bilingual education of Deaf children in Greece. We will present examples from our Greek and European experience that involve the integration of teaching Greek Sign Language (GSL) as a first language to Deaf children and the process of developing educational materials to meet the needs of Greek Deaf students. We briefly present the development of the Curriculum for teaching GSL as a first language. The bulk of the chapter presents the results of the difficult task of materials production (e.g., creating, adopting, and adapting teaching materials) in Greece and their potential use for teaching any signed language as a first language to Deaf children worldwide. Specifically, we present The Online Interactive Digital Sign Language Library, the Online Greek Sign Language Dictionary, the Signing Books for GSL learning, and the interactive e-Books for bilingual teaching of Greek Sign Language, and Modern Greek via print. Finally, we present innovative best practices for the use of the teaching materials. These practices involve simple, accessible, open access, and interactive platforms tailored to the needs of Deaf children.