Abstract

BERTIN, Fabrice  and  BENVENUTO, Andrea. SIGN LANGUAGE AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION: SIMPLE LINGUISTIC AND PEDAGOGICAL CHOICES? THE AUGUSTE BEBIAN LESSON. ETD - Educ. Temat. Digit. [online]. 2022, vol.24, n.4, pp.781-795. ISSN 1676-2592.  https://doi.org/10.20396/etd.v24i4.8670059.

Auguste Bébian (Pointe-à-Pitre, 1789-1839) was the first to lay the foundations for bilingual education as we know it today: sign language with oral and written French. Bébian also developed a system of writing in sign language (Mimographie, 1825) and, finally, what constitutes the heart of his philosophical project: by stripping it of the methodical signs invented by the abbe De l’Épée, sign language regains its own structure and functioning differently from oral languages, it is considered the natural language of the deaf. Furthermore, Bébian does not see in it a means of expressing the thoughts of the deaf, sign language is his instrument (Essai sur les Sourds- muets et sur le Langage Naturel, 1817). The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that, in the education of the deaf, sign language cannot be defined as a “simple” linguistic and pedagogical option. Sign language is inscribed above all in a certain ontological and ecological reflection, as it is situated at the very crossroads of the relationships between individuals, their capacities and the activities around which they organize their lives and their environment. Addressing the issue of sign language in the bilingual education of deaf young people today, beyond legal, institutional and pedagogical frameworks, implies raising the question of its need and the conditions of its contingency.

Keywords : Deaf; Sign language; Bilingual education; Auguste Bébian.

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