The English-Only Movement and Sign Language for Deaf Learners: An Instructive Parallel

Abstract

T  and implementation of a law requiring that English be the primary language of instruction in California marked  as a historic year in the teaching of English in the United States. However, not only did this movement not happen suddenly (it actually began more than twenty years earlier), it also is not isolated as an example of excluding learners’ first languages in schools. In the education of deaf and hard of hearing learners, to take another prime example, whether to use sign language or English as the primary language of instruction is a long-standing issue in countries in which English is the first language of hearing people. Examples can also be found outside the English-speaking world; for example, in Slovakia, a prohibition is in effect against the use of Hungarian by resident Hungarians, and the government has required the removal of Hungarian expressions on public signage that had previously been bilingual in those parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. To what extent are these movements and issues parallel, and how may they inform each other? Let us address these issues in relation to both differences and, especially, similarities in terms of what we may learn from them in order that educators and others may develop a balanced perspective on the issue of the language of instruction.