ABSTRACT
This study examined the work of deaf mothers in their family, educational, and paid work experiences. As my data illustrate, language is key to understandings of both visible and invisible work in family and paid work settings . Although one might think that being bilingual and speaking American Sign Language (ASL) as well as spoken English are an advantage to being "between worlds," the stories of these women show how speaking these two languages sometimes puts them at a disadvantage. As the women try to integrate themselves into various settings, they do a kind of language work where they shift their ways of talking, among using ASL, spoken English, and hybrid languages "in between." As my data show, while making these shifts, they are making political decisions about how they identify themselves. I have shown how this language work is organized and embedded within the larger social contexts of family, education, and the paid workforce. The women do this language work in their family, education, and work settings, in part, to be seen as "good" mothers and workers. By making this work visible, we can see how the work is also maintained by the larger social institutions of work, family, and schools . Since these social institutions and the majority of the people within them use spoken English as the dominant language, those that deviate from this norm, such as the women of this study, are often not seen as legitimate workers, mothers, or women. The women and their families, then, also do this language work, in part, to resist the stigmas often placed on them in hearing and sometimes even in deaf contexts.
