Bilingualism Matters conference in Milan

5 May 2026

Photo: UHH/IDGS/D2L

The “Bilingualism Matters” conference took place in Milan, Italy, from April 28 to 30, 2026. The first day of the conference was themed “Bilingual Bimodalism,” therefore, all presentations focused on sign languages. The IDGS (GW) and the Deafness, Language and Learning Lab (D2L, EW) were represented by Anne Wienholz, Janika Stille, Iris Wagener, and Barbara Hänel-Faulhaber.

In a bimodal bilingual presentation (International Sign and English) titled “Age of acquisition effects on semantic processing in early and late signing children acquiring German Sign Language,” Janika Stille and Anne Wienholz presented research findings from a joint project between the IDGS and D2L. Anne Wienholz and Barbara Hänel-Faulhaber, together with Solveig Chilla and Lina Abed Ibrahim (Europa-Universität Flensburg), presented their work on the topic “Bilingual Bimodal Hard-of-hearing Children with Forced Displacement Biographies in Germany: A Pilot Study on Morphosyntactic Development in German Spoken Language and German Sign Language” on a poster.

All presentations covered a broad spectrum of sign language topics—ranging from psycholinguistic research and comparative language studies to the description of school environments. It was fascinating to see the different perspectives on sign language research.