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<p>This essay is treating how, by signing to little children, can help them i their speach language development. I have intervjued the staff in a preeschool, where they are working with signs in the purpose to help little children, in some case, so small that they not yet have a language, to communicate with others. My hope is to show that it´s possible to minimize small childrens tantrums with this method. And that these children who has learned signs, does not choose signing over spoken language.</p>

This essay is treating how, by signing to little children, can help them i their speach language development. I have intervjued the staff in a preeschool, where they are working with signs in the purpose to help little children, in some case, so small that they not yet have a language, to communicate with others. My hope is to show that it´s possible to minimize small childrens tantrums with this method. And that these children who has learned signs, does not choose signing over spoken language.

This dissertation based on a case study explores the acquisition and the guidance of Swedish Sign Language and spoken Swedish over a span of seven years. Interactions between a pair of fraternal twins, one deaf and one hearing, and their Deaf[1] family were video-observed within the home setting. The thesis consists of a frame which provides an overview of the relationship between four studies. These describe and analyze mainly storytime sessions over time. The first article addresses attentional expressions between the participants; the second article studies the mediation of the deaf twin’s first language acquisition; the third article analyses the hearing twins acquisition of parallel bimodal bilingualism; the fourth article concerns second language acquisition, sequential bimodal bilingualism following a cochlear implant (CI). In the frame, theoretical underpinnings such as mediation and language acquisition were compiled, within a sociocultural frame. This synthesis of results provides important information; in the 12- and 13-month sessions simultaneous-tactile-looking was noted in interchanges between the twins and their mother; mediation of bilingualism was scaffolded by the caregivers with the hearing twin by inserting single vocal words or signs into the language base used at that time, a finding that differs from other reported studies; a third finding is the simultaneousness in which the deaf child’s Swedish Sign Language skill worked as a cultural tool, to build a second and spoken language. The findings over time revealed actions that included all the family members. Irrespective of the number of modes and varied types of communication with more than one child, mediation included following-in the child’s initiation, intersubjective meaningfulness and encouragement. In accordance with previous research, these factors seem to promote the acquisition of languages. In conclusion, these findings should also prove useful in the more general educational field. [1] Deaf with a capital ‘D’ is commonly used for cultural affiliation whereas lower case ‘d’, as in deaf, refers to audiological status (Monaghan, Schmaling, Nakamura &amp; Turner, 2003). / <p>Disputationen tolkas till svensk teckenspråk, hörselslinga finns.</p><p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Accepted. Paper 4: Submitted.</p>

Sammanfattning Att kunna identifiera och förstå olika varieteter av målspråket är en grundläggande förutsättning för att andraspråksinlärare av svenska ska kunna bli fullständig deltagare i dagens flerspråkiga svenska samhälle. Den här studien har till syfte att explorativt undersöka vuxna andraspråksinlärares tillägnande av kunskaper i språklig variation vad gäller modersmålssvenska och andraspråkssvenska, samt deras sociolingvistiska medvetenhet. Detta testas och analyseras genom olika moment i ett lyssnarexperiment, dvs. hur L2-lyssnare bedömer olika talare, hur de förklarar sin bedömning och hur de uppfattar sig själva jämfört med olika talare. En bakgrundsenkät används för att samla in information om språklig erfarenhet och koppla den till L2-lyssnarnas bedömningar. Resultaten pekar mot att studiens L2-lyssnare varierar väldigt mycket vad gäller kunskaper i variation, och vissa lyssnare verkar även ha helt identiska bedömningar med modersmålskontrollgruppen. Studien har däremot inte kunnat påvisa någon korrelation mellan språklig erfarenhet och L2-lyssnarnas bedömningar. Det presenteras möjliga tolkningar av och förklaringar till vad som kan ha påverkan på L2-lyssnares kunskaper. / Abstract Being able to identify and understand different varieties of the target language is a fundamental condition for learners of Swedish as a second language in order to gain full language proficiency and become a participant in today’s multilingual Swedish society. The present study is an explorative investigation of how adult second language learners acquire knowledge of native and non-native variation in Swedish and of sociolinguistic awareness. A listening experiment is used to collect and analyse data in three steps, i.e. how L2 listeners judge different speakers, how they explain their judgements, and how they perceive their own Swedish compared to different speakers. A questionnaire is used to collect information about language experience and to find correlations between this and L2 listeners’ judgements. The results indicate that L2 listeners’ knowledge of variation varies to a great extent, and that some of them seem to have identical judgements to the native control group. The data in this study does not support that there are any correlations between L2 listeners’ language experience and judgements. Possible interpretations and explanations of what can affect L2 listeners’ knowledge are presented as well.