Language Preferences Among Hearing Parents of Deaf Children in Ein Mahil

The present study focuses on the complex language situation of hearing families with deaf children in Ein Mahil, a village in northern Israel, where five distinct language varieties co-exist: Colloquial Arabic, Standard Arabic, Hebrew, Israeli Sign Language and Ein Mahil Sign Language. In this community, hearing parents must make difficult language choices for their deaf children in terms of language use in the home and at school. Data were gathered from 10 hearing parents of deaf children who did not share a fully accessible language with their children from birth. Using questionnaires, we explore language proficiency, preference, and usage as expressed by hearing parents. Findings show that deaf children in Ein Mahil are more proficient in EMSL than the dominant sign language, ISL, despite their hearing parents' preferences for ISL. That said, parents in this study indicate that each language is used for a specific purpose: Colloquial Arabic and EMSL for ideological reasons, ISL and Hebrew for instrumental reasons, and Standard Arabic for religious purposes. This study highlights the language situation faced by the minority deaf communities in Israel, particularly the importance of family and school language policies in this process. Article visualizations: