Bilingual-Bicultural Education

Bilingual-bicultural (Bi-Bi) education is an approach to Deaf education in which children learn in both a natural sign language (e.g., ASL, BSL, LSF, LGP) as a first language and the surrounding written/spoken language as a second language, while engaging substantively with both Deaf and hearing cultures. It contrasts with oralist approaches that emphasize spoken language and lip-reading, and with mainstreaming without sign-language support. Fully bilingual schools where hearing students also learn sign language extend the model to produce a shared bicultural environment. Research suggests Bi-Bi environments support stronger Deaf identity, richer cross-cultural peer relationships, and more sustained mixed-hearing social play than partial or oralist models.