Signs for BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL

Meaning: Bilingual-Bicultural (BiBi) refers to education of the Deaf in which BiBi education programs use sign language as the first or native language of Deaf children who learn both ASL and English.

This is the most natural educational model for deaf children and students and is the most favored model of education by Deaf people. It guarantees language acquisition in both languages with ASL as a foundation in order to learn a second language efficiently.

Marie Jean Philip (1953-1997) was a pioneer in the bilingual-bicultural (bi-bi) movement in the 1980s.

Related signs: BILINGUAL, EDUCATION, SCHOOL, DEAF, LANGUAGE, CULTURE.

Deaf Culture and tidbits

"It's almost as if the monolingual child's brain is on a diet and the bilingual child's brain stretches to the full extent and variability that Mother Nature gave it to use language and exploit human language." -- 'Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto (Gallaudet Today, Spring 2012, p. 18.)

"[Bilingualism] is our ally ensuring quality education for all, in promoting inclusion and combating discrimination." -- Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO.

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Search Tips and Pointers

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Alphabetical letters: It's useful for 1) a single-letter word (such as A, B, etc.) and 2) very short words (e.g. "to", "he", etc.) to narrow down the words and pages in the list.

For best result, enter a short word in the search box, then select the alphetical letter (and page number if needed), and click on the blue link.

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Don't forget to click "All" back when you search another word with a different initial letter.

If you cannot find (perhaps overlook) a word but you can still see a list of links, then keep looking until the links disappear! Sharpening your eye or maybe refine your alphabetical index skill. :)

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ASL has its own grammar and structure in sentences that works differently from English. For plurals, verb inflections, word order, etc., learn grammar in the "ASL Learn" section. For search in the dictionary, use the present-time verbs and base words. If you look for "said", look up the word "say". Likewise, if you look for an adjective word, try the noun or vice versa. E.g. The ASL signs for French and France are the same. If you look for a plural word, use a singular word.