La place de la langue des signes dans le milieu institutionnel de l'éducation : enjeux, blocages et évolution

Résumé En

Patrice Dalle : The role of sign language in the education institutions: stakes, hurdles and evolution Sign language status in the institutional environment of deaf education is changing, but its real role in the schooling system is still very limited. However what is at stake is nothing less than the success of deaf children at school and their access the citizenship as adults. In this article, first of all, we present the most important official texts published in the last twenty years, as well as the different viewpoints of the people in charge of education. In a second part, we try to analyse the hurdles that sign language usage still faces in the schooling system. If the teaching of sign language is now accepted, information about the status and the linguistic mechanisms of sign language still meets strong oppositions. One of them has to do with the capacity of this language (for which a written form has still to be created) to transmit knowledge. Another one focuses on the real ability of deaf people to become proper teachers in any subject. At present, these topics are still widely debated, in spite of the success of a very small number of schooling units that have offered a sign language teaching program over the last twenty years.