The African Symposium: An online journal of the African Educational Research Network 51 Volume 12, No. 2, December 2012 The African Symposium INSTRUCTION IN A PRIMARY LANGUAGE: A STRATEGY FOR TEACHING CHILDREN WHO ARE DEAF Abraham Namukoa University of Alberta Abstract Approaches for teaching learners who are deaf in Kenya has been surrounded by a cacophony of strategies, to an extend that teachers are left in a state of continues conceptual tossing while learners remain actualities of trial and error approaches that have been supported by limited evidence based research. The main dilemma has been the bilingual model of Kenyan education curriculum delivery a factor that has been considered to have been confounded by the visual communication nature for learners who are deaf. Kenyan Sign language (KSL) is the primary language for children who are deaf in Kenya. As they go to school, learners who are deaf are expected to learn in both KSL and English. This paper will discuss the outcomes of using a learner’s primary language (sign language) to teach other school subjects among deaf children, will present pertinent research, and will propose instructional adaptations for all teachers working with deaf children. Key Words: Primary Language, Deaf Students, Kenyan Sign Language Instruction in a Primary Language: A Strategy for Teaching Children who are Deaf Learning a first language such as sign language with consistent exposure to proficient primary language models has been identified as one of the best practices in supporting literacy development among children who are deaf and hard of hearing (Easterbrooks & Stephenson, 2006). Strategies that support deaf children to learn Sign Language like Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) or another sign language prior to the introduction of English/spoken language are considered respectful to deaf culture and they foster ownership by helping students develop pride and identity in their deafhood (Enns, 2007; Wilbur, 2000). The evidence supports the use of a bilingual educational approach that promotes the use of a learner’s primary language (L1) to develop skills in the learner’s secondary language (L2) even though the education curriculum has multiple objectives beyond just language development (Gregory, 1996). Since using a learner’s primary language in instruction necessitates conceptual understanding through bridging the gap between the learner’s experiences and the process of learning (Enns, 2007), it is important to explore how the bilingualism approach could be generalized to other school learning objectives/subjects. A lack of consistent instructional approaches and a limited exposure to a learner’s primary language has led to delayed language development and a limited capacity in construing abstract content (Hyde, Power, & Zevenbergen, 2003). For example, these factors have limited the capacity of deaf students to understand scientific concepts (Molander, Norell, & Pedersen, 2001). Molander et al. (2001) conducted an interview in a Swedish compulsory school with the aim of assessing the reasoning of deaf pupils about scientific phenomena. This study implemented two steps: 1. Three 15-year-old deaf pupils in grade 8 were assessed regarding their use of scientific concepts in problem solving and their ability to link knowledge from different school subjects to life experiences