‘World-Leading’ UK–Germany Research Project Receives Funding to Transform Understanding of Multilingual Deaf Migrant Children
New AHRC–DFG funded collaboration will investigate how deaf and hard-of-hearing children in migrant families experience multilingualism across the UK and Germany.
Professor Ruth Swanwick from the Centre for Language and Education Research (CLER), School of Education, University of Leeds, together with colleagues in Cologne, Germany, and UCL, London, has been awarded funding under the bilateral Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) partnership with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The partnership brings together world-leading arts and humanities researchers in the UK and Germany to address complex social, cultural, and linguistic questions.
In awarding the funding, the review panel commended the project’s exceptional quality:
The panel agreed that the proposal was world-leading in relation to all the assessment criteria – scholarship, originality, quality and significance. The proposed research is likely to have a major impact on the field.
The project ‘Reframing Multilingualism: Examining the multilingual experiences and repertoires of DHH children growing up in migrant contexts of Germany and the UK’ will investigate how deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children in multilingual migrant households experience and develop their language repertoires. The team will examine how social, geographical, and migration contexts influence language use and repertoire development and explore ways of capturing these multilingual experiences in a methodologically robust and context-sensitive way.
The project’s transnational focus leverages the UK’s established institutional support for multilingual learners and Germany’s experience with high recent migration. The expected outcomes include:
- Analysis and explanation of the contexts of language development for DHH migrant children.
- Expansion of scientific knowledge on multilingual linguistic repertoires in diverse settings.
- Development of informed guidelines for researching, assessing, and explaining language use and development in marginalised communities.
- Creation of practical recommendations for sustainable linguistic support for DHH migrant children across Europe, contributing to policy development.
The project adopts a participatory approach involving children, families, support networks, and educational institutions and includes both DHH and hearing researchers and educators in project design, data analysis, and dissemination.
Project Team
Prof. Ruth Swanwick, Principal Investigator, University of Leeds (Centre for Language and Education Research, School of Education)
Dr Kate Rowley, Co-Investigator, University College London
Prof. Dr. Nicole Marx, Principal Investigator, University of Cologne
Prof. Wolfgang Mann, Co-Investigator, University of Cologne
About CLER
The Centre for Language and Education Research (CLER) studies how language shapes education, life opportunities, and social participation. Working with partners worldwide, CLER addresses challenges such as inequality, migration, stigma, and digital transformation. CLER research develops inclusive pedagogies and resources, strengthens practitioner networks, and uses arts-based interventions to challenge deficit views of language to help communities thrive.
