Introduction

Deaf people join groups of people all over the world who must manage two languages, one of which is a dominant-world language and the other a minority, often unfavored language. In the United States and Canada, Deaf people who use American Sign Language (ASL) as the preferred everyday language interact, often intimately, with individuals who use English – hearing teachers, relatives, and co-workers. Deaf people have many opportunities to use only ASL, but rarely can they avoid contact with English. They are more likely to have parents who use English than parents who use ASL. They are more likely to have teachers who are native speakers of English. Many have co-workers who speak only English.

The language lives of Deaf people involve constantly moving between languages, ASL and English, and between cultural worlds, the worlds of ASL signers and English speakers. Because ASL does not have a written system, Deaf people use written English both as a means of contact with English and as a means of storing information about themselves and their language. Deaf people recite ASL poems and make videotapes of poetry performances, but their analyses of poetry appear in written English. Deaf children in a third grade classroom read a paragraph together in English, and then explain its meaning to each other in ASL. Deaf teenagers read computer manuals in English and explain to friends in ASL how to write a short program on the computer.