Research seminar: Helen Koulidobrova

Title: Questions of (non)modality and multilingualism: Crip Linguistics for all, and especially for most deaf/hard of hearing kids

Helen Koulidobrova is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the Central Connecticut State University. She is Director for the Bilingualism & English Language Learning Research Lab and Coordinator of Applied Linguistics & TESOL programs.

Helen Koulidobrova(ccsu.edu)

Helen Koulidobrova. Private Photo

Abstract

This talk is situated in the discussion that has been growing in the fields of Sign Linguistics, Disability Studies, and Deaf Education involving Crip Linguistics (Henner & Robinson 2021).  In particular, I will direct the tenets of the framework towards what Crip theorizing means to us as linguists. In doing so, I propose extending the discussion beyond the domains in which it has thus far taken place. I argue that adopting a Crip Linguistics framework for linguistic research more generally results in a more accurate analysis of language acquisition in many cases where learners' early language experience do not conform to the standard monolingual model that is presumed by our current idealized model of "the native speaker/signer." These groups include deaf and hard of hearing children who did not receive accessible linguistic input early in life, but also heritage language users, international adoptees, and other groups whose language acquisition experiences have often been relegated to the margins of the linguistic literature. Crip Linguistics calls for us to broaden our view of what constitutes language and how grammar develops, allowing new insights for linguistic inquiry and, importantly, decolonializing approach which, in turn, calls for a change in envisioning language education, for all children.

– Helen Koulidobrova

Contact

Welcome to contact us if you have questions about our seminars.
If you need a sign language interpreter, please let us know in advance.

Anna Sjöberg, PhD student
anna.sjoberg@ling.su.se

Carla Wikse Barrow, PhD student
carla.w.barrow@ling.su.se