Reframing Multilingualism: Examining the multilingual experiences and repertoires of DHH children growing up in migrant contexts of Germany and the UK (Multi_DHH)
The transnational Multi_DHH project investigates how deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children growing up in multilingual migrant families experience and use language in their everyday lives. Multi_DHH is a collaboration between the University of Cologne, the University of Leeds, and University College London. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Research on multilingualism has traditionally focused on hearing populations and has largely overlooked the experiences of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, particularly those growing up in migrant contexts. Multi_DHH addresses this gap by examining how DHH children use a range of communicative resources, including sign languages, spoken languages, gestures, and other visual modes of communication, and how these multilingual repertoires develop over time.
We understand language as a social practice that emerges through interaction and is shaped by family life, educational environments, and broader social and migration-related contexts. To investigate how DHH migrant children use communicative resources, we adopt an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach, combining linguistic ethnography, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics, and collaborate closely with children, families, and educators across home, school, and community settings. A comparative perspective between Germany and the United Kingdom enables the project to examine how different educational and social systems influence children’s language experiences.
With Multi_DHH, we aim to advance theoretical understandings of multilingualism in diverse and underrepresented populations, while also generating insights relevant to educational practice, assessment, and support for DHH children in migrant contexts.
Collaborators
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Mann (University of Cologne, DE) (Co-Investigator)
Prof. Dr. Nicole Marx (University of Cologne, DE) (Principle Investigator)
Prof. Dr. Kate Rowley (University College of London, UK) (Co-Investigator)
Prof. Dr. Ruth Swanwick (University of Leeds, UK) (Principle Investigator)