Ambiguity as a motor for communication—Differences between hearing and deaf students’ ways of reasoning about energy

Ambiguity in group discussions as a resource for communication is studied. How students, aged 13–15 years, elaborate on the concept energy through dialogue is described. Group interviews were conducted with 15 hearing and 20 deaf students. Three probes were used to initiate discussions on different meanings of energy. The results show that the dialogues are less elaborated for deaf learners compared with hearing learners. It is argued that dialogues between hearing students have a greater chance of becoming ‘joint productive activity’, since the ambiguity of the word energy in Swedish lays the ground for shared meaning-making. To deaf learners, the ambiguity between the Swedish word and the signs used produces uncertainty and puts an end to further dialogue.