L2 education for foreign adults who are D/deaf: the role of Sign Language

In the context of a wider study of the movement of deaf people across Europe and their legal position in Italy, I have conducted a first overview of the methods adopted by D/deaf people to learn a second spoken language, observing the interactions in an experimental class in Italian as a second language. The class comprised 22 hearing migrants, mainly from Africa, and two Deaf people (with initial capital to identify people who are deaf and prefer Sign Language for daily communication). All learners had the opportunity to interact with professional L2 teachers, of whom one was a professional Sign Language interpreter. This article reports on that experience, with a particular focus on the role of Sign Language in all didactic interactions.