Analyzing language practices in mother–child interaction against the background of maternal construction of deafness

Abstract

This paper explores what mothers think about language, what they plan to do in language and what they actually do within the context of interaction with their deaf child. Through the concept of construction of deafness, developed to understand how parents view deafness, we attempted to capture mothers’ language ideology and planning by analyzing interview data. The findings of the interview analyses were confronted with analyses of language practices with their deaf child. As such we were able to gain insight into the interplay between construction of deafness and language ideology on one hand, and language practices on the other hand.