wednesday, 24 february 2021—12:15
Online seminar: Different is the new normal: Linguistic diversity and deaf learners
Kathryn Crowe, University of Iceland (Iceland), Charles Sturt University (Australia), National Technical Institute
link for the Teams meeting: https://bit.ly/2MioIxW
More and more often children who are D/deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) are growing up in environments where more than one spoken language is used. Developments in audiological testing and technology, and education systems and practices mean that more than at any time in the past, DHH children have the possibility of becoming multilingual users of spoken languages. The growing realization of DHH children’s multiple linguistic identities is changing and transcending the traditional concept of multilingualism for DHH learners being limited to bimodal bilingualism. This presentation will first unpack the diversity of DHH learners in terms of hearing, linguistic, and cultural factors that can impact on their language development and educational outcomes. The focus will then switch to perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism for DHH learners and evidence describing the speech, language, and literacy outcomes of DMLs.