Multimodal Transduction and Translanguaging in Deaf Pedagogy

Abstract

Multimodal transduction is an interaction of teaching and learning. It traverses changes in epistemology and ontology through judgements about axiology. Using multimodal transduction (MT), students and teachers transcend languages and employ nonlanguage and quasi-language modes (e.g., drawing, color, line, math, infographics, and even sculptures). This study uses qualitative empirical data via grounded theory and case study designs to make theoretical claims about MT in a deaf higher-educational context. The data for this multi-year project were sourced through interviews, document analysis, observations, and stimulated recall with six university professors who are deaf. My analysis shows that these deaf faculty-members employ MT to convert inaccessible modes to become accessible for deaf learners. By changing modalities through MT, deaf faculty enhance comprehensibility and equity for deaf learners. This theoretical account of MT contends, extends, and clarifies aspects of translanguaging theory. As I argue, both operations transform power relations in the classroom by addressing ethics through deaf-centric aesthetics. In deaf education, MT is equally important for faculty in teaching and students’ learning. MT is widely and creatively used, owing to its flexibility and adaptivity. MT is useful for all deaf agents, regardless of additional disabilities, language competencies, or language deprivation. The MT process is inexplicit and undertheorized in the literature about deaf pedagogy and in translanguaging research. My study provides empirical support for theoretical claims about underlying mechanisms of translanguaging. One focus is to explore how MT and translanguaging (and similar theories) align or diverge. I argue that MT is a core mechanism that supports changes between all modes of discourse that enable information exchange, including but surpassing languages and translanguaging. In sum, MT is an interaction whereby deaf agents change the forms of knowledge; meanwhile, new realities and new power relations are manifested.