Learning written German vocabulary in the signed mode: Challenges and strategies in the multimodal-multilingual classroom

As vocabulary development is a crucial first step in learning a new language, this study examines how immigrant deaf and hard-of-hearing multilingual learners (IDML) acquire written German vocabulary through fingerspelling activities in a German as a second language class. In deaf education, fingerspelling plays a unique role because it combines signed mode with written language /Holmström & Schönström, Citation2018. Deaf lecturers’ translanguaging in a higher education setting. A multimodal multilingual perspective. Applied Linguistics Review, 9(1), 90–111]. This paper presents a linguistic ethnographic study drawing on classroom recordings and semi-structured interviews, focusing on one teacher and three IDML whose semiotic repertoires share similarities, including national sign language and the written language of their home country. Focusing on these affordances emerging from their shared semiotic repertoires, the study explores the individual and social possibilities they create for language learning. The illustrative examples show how students encounter challenges in developing visual orthographic sequences of written German while navigating the phonological parameters of DGS. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates how learners draw on their semiotic repertoire, e.g. their sign and written language from their home country, to negotiate meaning and support vocabulary learning. Differences in participation and learning pace, as well as how individual students strategically rely on peer scaffolding, reveal the micro-level processes through which IDML engage with written German vocabulary.