Bimodal bilingualism

Bimodal bilingualism refers to an individual or community's bilingual competency in one spoken language and one signed language (spoken and signed are the "modes" to which "bimodal" refers). A substantial number of bimodal bilinguals are Children of Deaf Adults or other hearing people who learn sign language for various reasons). Deaf people as a group have their own sign language and culture, but invariably live within a larger hearing culture with its own spoken language. Thus, "most deaf people are bilingual to some extent in a spoken language in some form" . In discussions of multilingualism in the United States, bimodal bilingualism and bimodal bilinguals have often not been mentioned or even considered, in part because American Sign Language, the predominant sign language used in the U.S., only began to be acknowledged as a natural language in the 1960s . However, bimodal bilinguals share many of the same traits as traditional bilinguals (those with competency in at least two spoken languages), as well as differing in some interesting ways, due to the unique characteristics of the Deaf community.