Hrvatska revija za rehabilitacijska istraživanja 2022, Vol 58, (Special Issue) Sign Language, Deaf Culture, and Bilingual Education str. 83-97 83 LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM BIMODAL BILINGUALISM DIANE LILLO-MARTIN 1 , DEANNA GAGNE 2 , DEBORAH CHEN PICHLER 2 1 University of Connecticut, Department of Linguistics, 365 Fairfield Way, Storrs, CT, United States 2 Gallaudet University, Department of Linguistics, Washington, DC, United States contact: diane.lillo-martin@uconn.edu Received: 02.09.2021 Accepted: 24.06.2022. REVIEW ARTICLE UDK: 81’221.24:81’246.2 doi: https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.58.si.4 Abstract: This article presents a selective overview of topics related to the language experience of early bimodal bilinguals - individuals who are raised from an early age using two languages from two different modalities, typically spoken (or written) and signed. We show that deaf and hearing bimodal bilinguals may display patterns of bilingualism that are similar to unimodal bilinguals in some ways, such as the use of both languages in a single situation or even a single utterance. Nevertheless, there are also differences between bimodal and unimodal bilinguals, and differences among different subgroups of bimodal bilinguals, given large variation in relative access to the dominant and minority language(s) in their environment and their differential experiences in schooling and interactions with potential interlocutors. Moreover, we review studies discussing potential advantages of the sign modality and advantages of bilingualism in this population. We hope to highlight the importance of considering children’s overall language experience, including the age(s) at which they are exposed to each of their languages, the richness of their experiences with each of the languages, and the ways that the language-learning experience may contribute to the child’s linguistic and cognitive development. Keywords: bimodal bilingual, language acquisition, heritage language, sign language, deaf 1. INTRODUCTION Bilingualism is pervasive around the world. Bilingual people use two (or more) languages in various ways; they may have been exposed to both languages from birth (2L1) and use them in a rela- tively balanced way; they may use one at home (a heritage language) and a different one in the com- munity; or they may use a second language which they learned only after their first language was well established (L2A). Bilingual people are famously not two monolinguals in one person (Grosjean, 1989); they know which language to use when, but their languages interact in rule-governed ways and are never fully ‘turned off’, even when they seem to be using only one language at a time. The study of bilingualism has provided linguists, psycholo- gists, education experts, and others with deep in- sights about the ways that languages are acquired, learned, processed, stored, and even forgotten. Bimodal bilinguals use languages in two mo- dalities: a spoken language in the auditory/vo- cal modality (although sometimes they use the written version of this language primarily) and a signed language in the visual/gestural modali- ty. Importantly, we refer here and throughout this article to the natural sign languages that emerge in Deaf communities 1 (e.g., American Sign Lan- guage/ASL or Croatian Sign Language/hrvats- ki znakovni jezik/HZJ), not to invented systems that represent the words and sentences of spoken languages in a visual form (e.g., Signed English). Like other bilinguals, bimodal bilinguals may be exposed to both of their languages from birth, and very often their home (sign) language is not the dominant language of their community. They also display typical bilingual effects (both languages are always ‘on’), and in addition, show unique bilingual phenomena that are closely tied to the visual-gestural modality (e.g., code-blending, dis- cussed further below). 1 Following a common practice, we capitalize the word ‘Deaf’ when referring to Deaf communities and Deaf culture. However, we leave the term lower-case elsewhere, so as not to imply membership in the community or lack of it for any particular persons.