Bilingual versus Monolingual Vocabulary Instruction for Bilingual Children with Hearing Loss

This study examined the efficacy of vocabulary instructional practices for teaching bilingual children with hearing loss. There is little information in the research literature on the degree the child's home language is used. Three Spanish-English-speaking children participated in this single-case alternating treatments design study. The results indicated there was no inhibitory effect on learning English vocabulary when a bilingual approach was used, but gains in Spanish vocabulary were seen only in the bilingual condition. The authors conclude that children learn vocabulary more efficiently with bilingual instruction.