Immersion in Chilean sign language: implications in the linguistic development of deaf students

Abstract

Sign languages are developed and enriched preferably within bilingual educational settings for the deaf (Knoors & Marschark, 2012), thus directly impacting on the variety of linguistic experience of their users, which has been poorly recognized in relation to their education. For this reason, this research seeks to describe the influence of the years of language immersion on language development of deaf students who are fluent signers of Chilean sign language (LSCh). In order to do that, 42 narratives, produced by 14 deaf students, were analyzed and five language-specific resources were described. The results show a direct relationship between the years of language immersion and how frequently language resources were used. Additionally, it was observed that school level has an impact on language development. This data allows considering linguistic experience for designing education programs and mediation actions within the classroom.