Under the current education system in Macau, hearing-impaired students will generally be encouraged to attend mainstream schools in “inclusive” classrooms.  While the Macau Government provides additional financial resources for schools to support them, hearing-impaired students, depending on the severity of their deafness and in spite of having cochlear implants, may still face difficulty adjusting to class learning and to engage socially.  The Galaxy Entertainment Group Foundation hopes to introduce a more dynamic, systematic and effective sign bilingualism and co-enrolment education model for these inclusive classrooms at mainstream schools for hearing-impaired students.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Centre for Sign Language and Deaf Studies
Colégio Diocesano de São José (5ª) 
Infantário de Nossa Senhora do Carmo

Prior to implementation of the Pilot Scheme, all teachers from the participating kindergarten and nursery attended sign language training conducted by staff members from the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  In addition to learning sign language to enable teachers to communicate with hearing-impaired children, the training helps to enhance teachers’ knowledge regarding sign bilingual education and teaching strategies for hearing-impaired children and children of deaf adults.

Many studies have shown that sign language is beneficial and can be used to help students with special educational needs (“SEN”), in addition to those who are hearing-impaired. Apart from helping deaf and hearing-impaired students, the Scheme also provides advice on general teaching for SEN students, particularly those who are following individual education plans set up specifically for their learning. This is because sign and spoken bilingual input strategies can simultaneously enhance learning even in hearing students, and particularly those with special needs. The Project Team will periodically conduct reviews with the school and provide professional advice on the development of the sign bilingual co-teaching, and how to overcome any issues encountered in implementing the Pilot Scheme.

In a “bilingual” environment at the nursery, the class teacher, with her deaf teaching assistant, regularly organise bilingual storytime activities for the various classes.  Storytime is co-presented by the teacher and the deaf teaching assistant using spoken and sign language simultaneously.  Movements and props are crucial in facilitating imitation of the actions required in sign language for the key vocabularies used.

The deaf teaching assistant will also provide one-on-one training sessions to hearing-impaired students twice a week.  The deaf teaching assistant will make use of different activities, games, and educational tools to enhance the students’ abilities in different areas such as cognition, language, emotion, etc.  Individual training helps the hearing-impaired children to build up their vocabulary and understanding of sign language, in preparation for their transition to kindergarten. 

The nursery also collaborates with the Chinese University of Hong Kong to provide parents with workshops on bilingual story-telling, run by the teacher and the deaf teaching assistant, to enable them to experience and better understand the bilingual teaching mode that is used in class. Parents are invited to join their children to attend and enjoy these story-telling workshops together.

To promote the Pilot Scheme to parents of hearing-impaired children, the Social Welfare Bureau has set up a referral system for the sign bilingual programme at the nursery.  Parents with hearing-impaired children aged 1-3, or who are themselves hearing-impaired may apply for their child to be enrolled at the nursery through social welfare centres, child and youth service centres, agencies for hearing-impaired persons or those providing early intervention subsidised by the Social Welfare Bureau.  More information can be found at: https://www.childcare.ias.gov.mo/referral-2?token=2XsvIQqc74ikw5lsyRwzrg==&lgType=en

The practice of co-teaching – where classes are prepared and taught by a hearing teacher and a deaf teaching assistant at the same time – is the main theme behind the bilingual inclusive classroom.  Three members of staff , two hearing teachers with one deaf teaching assistant, are in charge of the inclusive class at the kindergarten.

Preparation for lessons requires more time, but is crucial to ensuring that both the hearing teacher and the deaf teaching assistant are not only familiar with the teaching content, but can work together to effectively deliver the lesson content through spoken and sign languages.  Through this mode of teaching, hearing-impaired children, with the rest of the hearing students in the class, receive both spoken and sign language input allowing them to learn, interact and communicate effectively.

The Sign-Bilingualism Co-enrollment Scheme has an established system for the classroom to accommodate the needs of hearing-impaired students, through the provision of sign language input and visual learning materials.  For the entire school, the promotion of an inclusive environment to include hearing-impaired children will also require school administrators to evolve and adapt to include allowances such as special examination arrangements, sound equipment for the hearing-impaired, and encouraging teachers who may not be teaching in these inclusive classrooms to learn sign language so as to communicate with the hearing-impaired children in school.  Special resources for the hearing-impaired students enrolled in Scheme are also made available by the Chinese University of Hong Kong through a dedicated website.

In order to advocate and promote inclusiveness in the kindergarten, bilingual sign and spoken elements are also included in school activities.  At morning assembly, a hearing-impaired student from the inclusive class will lead the kindergarten in signing the song lyrics, and at extra-curricular and other school-wide activities, the school will ensure that sign interpretation is available to meet the needs of hearing-impaired students.  The deaf teaching assistants are also available to help hearing-impaired students who choose to attend after-school “homework club” with revision and homework during which sign language support is provided.

Long was diagnosed at birth with hearing impairment, his family was left feeling despaired and helpless.  Learning sign language and joining the GEG Sign Bilingualism Co-Enrolment Scheme at Carmo Nursery was a turning point for Long, sign language opening up a channel of communication for Long to understand the world around him, helping him to cope well with daily routines and academic work.  Just this September, Long started kindergarten at St Joseph in the Bilingualism Scheme's inclusive classroom, continuing his new journey in life...  Read the feedback letter from Long's mother about their experience with the Bilingualism Scheme:

The Project Team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong will also regularly conduct language assessments for hearing-impaired students to chart their language development, allowing teachers to understand their language level so that adjustments in teaching can be made as needed and training can be better tailored to suit their needs.

The Pilot Scheme has been well received by both the school and parents.  Since the Pilot Scheme’s implementation, the school has made it a point to introduce the concept and principles of sign bilingualism to new parents and collect information on their willingness to enroll their children in the inclusive class.  For both years, over 80% of about 150 new parents (from each cohort) had expressed their willingness to enroll their children in the inclusive class, reflecting their acceptance and support for the concept of the sign bilingualism programme.  

The Project Team regularly meets with the parents of hearing-impaired children to provide counselling, and to provide consultation on appropriate measures regarding their development.  The Project Team will also regularly meet with the parents of these children to discuss their child’s progress.  To enhance parents’ understanding towards sign bilingual education, and to enable them to better understand sign bilingual teaching, the Project Team will also hold different workshops for parents on topics such as hearing and speech training, and bilingual sign storytelling.

Based on research evidence and the needs of deaf education, the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong introduced, in 2006, an innovative sign bilingual education model which incorporates and strengthens the idea of inclusive education in mainstream schools.  Real inclusiveness in education is achieved by enabling deaf and hearing children to develop collaborative learning using both signed and spoken languages through co-teaching by deaf and hearing teachers.  The bilingual learning environment where deaf and hearing teachers and students integrate can also enhance their bilingual development and learning effectiveness.

As of 2019, 6 nurseries, 3 kindergarten, 3 primary schools, and 1 secondary school are using the Sign Language Co-enrollment model Asia-wide. The programme is now operating in Hong Kong (2006), Singapore (2017), Macau (2018), and the province of Quzhou (2018) in China.  A total of 160 deaf children are enrolled in the programme during 2019-2020 academic year.

In 2020, the Sign Bilingualism Co-enrollment Scheme received the Innovative Practice Award on Education awarded by the Essl Foundation’s Zero Project, which focuses on the rights of persons with disabilities globally.

(https://zeroproject.org/practice/pra201501chn-factsheet/)

Since the Scheme’s inception, the first cohort of 5 children who enrolled in the Colégio Diocesano de São José 5 graduated from kindergarten in July 2021, after completing three years of study in the inclusive classroom, which has a deaf teaching assistant co-teaching with the regular class teacher, under the GEG Sign Bilingualism Co-enrolment Scheme.  Given the successful trial implementation of the Scheme over the last three years, the Catholic Diocese of Macau, as the school’s governing body, has now taken on this Scheme in ensuring that the school will be continuing on with the Sign Bilingualism Co-enrolment Scheme, from both the funding and implementation perspectives, as these hearing-impaired children progress through primary/secondary schools and, perhaps, into the tertiary sector with hopefully the eventual involvement of the University of Saint Joseph.

The Foundation is pleased that the GEG Sign Bilingualism Co-enrolment Scheme has achieved its original intent that the well-developed sign bilingual education model can be inherited and rooted in Macau.  We hope that the programme will be continue to benefit the hearing-impaired to pursue advanced education and career opportunities, and to promote social inclusion in the community.

The Galaxy Entertainment Group Foundation launched the “GEG Sign Bilingualism Co-enrolment Pilot Scheme” in 2018.  Under the Scheme, one teacher and a deaf teaching assistant co-teach using both spoken and sign languages in the inclusive classroom, with hearing-impaired children attending class together with other hearing children.  The first cohort of both hearing and hearing-impaired students from the sign-bilingualism class in Colégio Diocesano de São José (5ª) had graduated from kindergarten in July 2021., b The Scheme has been well recognized by parents and teacher; not only are hearing-impaired students benefiting from the scheme with the use of signed and spoken language in class, parents of hearing children in particular found their children developing a greater empathy for others as a result.  Colégio Diocesano de São José (5ª) actively provides teachers with professional development training, including sign language training, optimizing teaching strategies, and strengthening visual aids etc., in order to meet the learning needs of students in the inclusive classroom.

Not only are hearing-impaired students direct beneficiaries of the GEG Sign Bilingualism Co-enrolment Pilot Scheme, so are teaching assistants in the inclusive classrooms.  These teaching assistants are deaf adults fluent in sign language; not only are they able to enhance the learning process of hearing-impaired students, they are instrumental in optimizing the “bilingual” education process through working closely with the class teacher.  As importantly, these inclusive classrooms represent a new employment opportunity for the deaf community as they pursue advanced studies in sign language teaching and kindergarten education, with the hope they may eventually qualify as teachers in schools offering sign bilingualism education.

In order to support teachers and their deaf teaching assistant to co-teach in the “GEG Sign Bilingualism Co-enrolment Pilot Scheme”, the Chinese University of Hong Kong offers sign language training to these teachers, and visits the school regularly to closely monitor the project’s progress and provide ongoing training and advice to teachers and school administrators. With the participation of the Catholic Diocese of Macau, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, the Social Welfare Bureau and the Labour Department in the pilot, the Scheme hopes that its positive result will eventually be fully recognised and supported by the government, enabling the Scheme to continue its implementation as these students progress through their academic careers.

Please refer to the Chinese version.