Higher sem. Biling. K. Schönström: Exploring multilingualism and language acquisition in deaf [...]

Seminar

Date: Tuesday 28 November 2023

Time: 15.00 – 16.30

Location: Room D480

Higher seminar in Bilingualism: Exploring multilingualism and language acquisition in deaf people – some theoretical and practical challenges. Krister Schönström, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University. The seminar is given in Swedish sign language interpreted to spoken English.

In this talk, the language acquisition of deaf people is explored. Research in the language acquisition of the deaf, in general, is a small field but highly heterogeneous in terms of theoretical and practical applications. Additionally, the field is riddled with some controversies, especially when viewed from a historical perspective.

In my presentation, I will begin with an overview of research on how deaf people acquire spoken/written languages alongside sign languages. I will provide examples from previous research, including my own work, demonstrating, for instance, how deaf individuals in Sweden acquire written Swedish based on theoretical frameworks of Second Language Acquisition. I will then continue to discuss how the factors shaping the acquisition of written languages in the deaf have evolved in recent times.

The talk will conclude with more recent research that explores linguistic diversity within the deaf community from a multilingual perspective and addresses theoretical and practical challenges in researching the language acquisition of deaf individuals.

Krister Schönström

About the Higher seminar in Research on Bilingualism