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In the past few years, we have witnessed the introduction of a bilingual-bicultural approach and an increasing skepticism of the value of manually coded English in the education of deaf children. The thrust of bilingual-bicultural programs is emphasis on using American Sign Language as the primary language of instruction. However, merely advocating something (i.e., the use of American Sign Language) in no way guarantees its successful implementation. This paper reviews the research on past usage of manually coded English in the classroom for clues as to some of the concerns that American Sign Language might face in its implementation.

A Midwest school district established a demonstration Total Communication Project. Its goal was for teachers to become consistent in their role modeling of English and American Sign Language (ASL). English was the primary language of the classroom and ASL was used as an intervention tool. There has been little research on the effectiveness of ASL in the classroom. By implementing an ASL intervention program this project is a first step in establishing an environment conducive to investigating the effectiveness of ASL intervention for teaching deaf students. This paper describes: (a) techniques used for identifying classroom situations that call for the use of ASL; (b) discourse situations that influence the use of different language codes in total communication classrooms; and (c) guidelines for code-switching between English and ASL.

This study surveyed deaf adults and documented their viewpoints on appropriate methods of communication for deaf children. A questionnaire was designed, pilot-tested, and then administered to 162 deaf adults in the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area. The consensus of the deaf adults was that sign language should be learned at an early age and before speech; language should be acquired bilingually and that American Sign Language and English signs should form the basis of the two languages; and deaf children should be able to obtain a bilingual education and to converse with their teachers in either language. Finally, members of the deaf community felt they should be involved in the formulation and implementation of policies regarding the education of deaf children.