ABSTRACT
The bilingual-bicultural perspective in deaf education advocates the use of American Sign Language (ASL) as the language of classroom instruction and introduces English in print form only (a visually accessible form) to deaf students. Research into the effectiveness of the bilingual-bicultural perspective is now increasing, but teacher preparation programs were not introducing their students to this approach until very recently. Therefore, schools that choose to use this perspective will need to educate their teachers about Deaf culture, ensure that teachers are fluent users of ASL, and demonstrate how ASL and English can be used effectively in the classroom in order to achieve the goal of bilingual-bicultural development in their students. To meet these needs, a multimedia, bilingual professional development tool was created for pre-service and inservice educators of the deaf that explains and demonstrates teaching practices that can be used to promote ASL and English language development in deaf students. The instructional tool utilizes digital video, embedded in a website-like interface, to present information in live motion ASL next to English text that communicates the same information. Preliminary findings with a pilot version of the tool indicated that Deaf teachers and hearing teachers are uniquely impacted by the tool and may use similar technology in a variety of ways in the classroom environment; it was evident from the initial inquiry that further investigation was needed into the role of this and similar instructional tools. Therefore, the research study aims to determine how one bilingual, multimedia instructional tool can impact educators of the deaf differently with respect to its personal, cultural, and instructional value, depending on the educational setting the teachers work in and their personal hearing status. Surveys and focus group discussions were used to collect the data needed to answer the research questions. Final analyses will make connections between the bilingual education literature, the educational technology literature, and historical and current issues in deaf education.
