Tecken av betydelse: En studie av dialog i ett multimodalt, teckenspråkigt tvåspråkigt NO-klassrum

A collaborative meaning-making process in the natural science classroom presupposes an interaction that to an increasing extent is characterised by scientific language usage. Developing a scientific subject-oriented language is often a great challenge for multilingual pupils learning natural science in their second language and whose consequent need of scaffolding is especially great. This study examines how natural science is learned amongst deaf and hard-of-hearing students in a bilingual science classroom where the meaning-making is conveyed through sign language and written Swedish. The primary questions of the thesis are how Swedish Sign Language and Swedish are used in dialogue and how these languages, in interplay with other modalities, contribute to the meaning-making process in the teaching of natural science. A group consisting of two teachers and eight pupils, all deaf or hard-of-hearing and sign bilingual, were filmed during a total of seventeen science lessons. Communication within the classroom, consisting of a sign bilingual environment with natural science artefacts, such as models, tables and other science equipment, is then analysed from a multimodal social semiotic perspective, where language and modalities are discussed as potential resources in the meaning-making process. The results depict a complex dialogue where languages and modalities are shifted between in a manner highly conductive to the further progress of dialogue. In addition, the visual-gestured aspects of the sign language appear as a potent modality. Especially depicting signs play a prominent role in the dialogue and the scientific meaning-making process. Dynamic language shifting occurring in the signed dialogue in the form of seamless and spontaneous transitions and used actively as a pedagogical tool is analysed and discussed within a framework of translanguaging. The contextual restrictions of sign language also require cross-linguistic discussions on a meta-level in instances where uncertainties as well as differences and similarities between various linguistic expressions are sorted out. The results also emphasise the important role of teachers in supporting pupils in the scientific meaning-making process as well as in the development of a scientific language. In the discussion, the need for pedagogical strategies is stressed in order to strengthen support for the sign bilingual scientific meaning-making process of deaf and hard-of-hearing pupils.