A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• “Why the long nose?”: A sociolinguistic analysis of deaf migrants’ language learning experiences in adult education

  2023. Nora Duggan. Linguistics and Education 78

  Article

  Linguistic skills are often seen as valuable capital necessary for migrants to successfully integrate into society. As part of Sweden's integration policy, deaf migrants are provided with opportunities to learn Swedish and Swedish Sign Language. Using an ethnographic approach comprising of classroom observations and semi-structured interviews in four folk high schools in Sweden, this study examines how deaf migrants’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds influence their language learning experiences. The study also explores different misunderstandings that have arisen as a result of not having the relevant linguistic resources necessary for efficient communication. The findings show the complexity of language learning and how this process is influenced by several social factors such as communication with family growing up, educational experiences or lack thereof, and cultural differences.

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• Translanguaging practices in adult education for deaf migrants

  2023. Nora Duggan, Ingela Holmström, Krister Schönström. DELTA 39 (1)

  Article

  In the last decade, Sweden has received many deaf migrants with very diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds. When arriving in Sweden, they are expected to learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish. For this study, we have used data from project Mulder, a four-year research project that aims to generate knowledge about deaf migrants' multilingual situation in Sweden. In this article, we describe how adult education for deaf migrants is organised in Sweden and examine how translanguaging practices are formed there. We found that translanguaging is a natural and common part of the multilingual classrooms, but also that the opportunities to translanguage depend highly on the individual's repertoires and whether particular individuals have one or more languages in common or have a lingua franca. We also found that translanguaging is not always helpful in learning contexts if the teachers are not conscious and insightful when they mix languages.

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• "They have no language": Exploring language ideologies in adult education for deaf migrants

  2022. Nora Duggan, Ingela Holmström. Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies 16 (2), 147-165

  Article

  This article is based on data from an empirical research project on the multilingual situation of deaf migrants in Sweden. Deaf migrants attending folk high schools are a heterogeneous group with various language and educational backgrounds. Some of them have grown up with limited or no access to a spoken or signed language while others have grown up learning multiple languages. In those schools, the migrants learn Swedish Sign Language (STS) and Swedish as well as about Swedish society. The study uses an ethnographic approach, and data has been created through participant observations and interviews with teachers and migrants in three folk high schools in different municipalities in Sweden. The analysis reveals that language ideologies are present in these schools, such as what constitutes a language and what status different languages and other repertoires have. In addition, STS appears to be the only acceptable language for communication within the schools. Another finding is that the Eurocentric perspective on ‘language’ among researchers and teachers often collides with the migrants who have different experiences of language use. Furthermore, the study reveals that some migrants, after some time in school, begin to view their previous repertoires used for communication as inferior to STS. It also emerges that the teachers lack the knowledge necessary to understand what it means to learn a language formally for the first time as an adult. In order to develop teachers’ knowledge to ensure social justice, research on adult deaf migrants’ language acquisition within school contexts is essential.

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• Crossing borders through language learning: the case of deaf adult migrants in Sweden

  2021. Ingela Holmström, Krister Schönström, Nora Duggan.

  Conference

  When migrants (including refugees and asylum seekers) arrive in Sweden, they must provide reasonsfor their migration to the Swedish Migration Agency in order to obtain a permit. This is done byinterviews, which usually requires either using a common language or through interpreters. However,this is not always possible for deaf migrants. There are deaf people who have grown up with limitedor no access to a language because they cannot hear and learn the spoken language of their familiesand they have not had the opportunity to learn a sign language. Some may also have not received aformal education. The combination of limited or no access to a language and little to no educationalbackground complicates the Agency’s interview process with deaf migrants. This puts deaf migrantsat risk of experiencing social injustice. As an intervention, deaf migrants are offered language educationprograms at adult non-formal education schools (folk high schools). In those schools, themigrants are given the opportunity to learn Swedish Sign Language and Swedish as well as aboutSwedish society.

  Scientific knowledge regarding (emergent) language learning in deaf adult migrants is almost nonexistent.The Mulder project, which began in 2020, aims to generate knowledge on this topic. Theproject focuses on classroom interaction and teaching in two folk high schools, using an ethnographicapproach. Based on observations as well as interviews with the teachers and migrants, interestingpatterns relating to teaching deaf migrants and the migrants’ language learning have emerged. Ourpresentation will demonstrate and discuss some key findings that can support teachers and improvetheir teaching towards more accessible and equal teaching approaches, not just for this particulargroup. Through development of language instruction, deaf migrants will have greater opportunitiesto argue for their needs and obtain fair treatment.

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