SignLanguageAcquisition Flashcards
Language Acquisition:
IIlustrate parts of language and steps
in acquisition through sign language
acquisition
What are sign languages?
⚫Sign languages are a visual spatial system of communication used as the primary means of communication by communities of deaf people around the world
⚫ASL (American Sign Language), as used in Anglophone North America, is
completely different from BSL
⚫Indeed, there are 114 sign languages in the world
Knowledge of Sign Languages
⚫ Sign languages have existed for at < 2 millenia, but have been studied only in the past 40 years
⚫ Early studies focused on overcoming oralist biases
⚫ Showed that sign languages have complex phonology, morphology, syntax, & semantics
⚫ And that equally complex ideas can be communicated
⚫ (Hans Furth, “Thinking Without Language”)
Debates: Oralists vs. Deaf Culture
⚫ > 100 yrs, debates re optimal education
⚫ E.g., strong oralist traditions (eg. A Graham Bell)
⚫ But, rejection of deafness as a deficit that needs to be fixed
⚫ A different way of being in the world
⚫ Strong movement until recently for signing only, including signing only communities
⚫ Now, with cochlear implants, some accepting sign plus spoken language…issues…
Like any other language
⚫ Requires a community to be used – need a critical mass of users
⚫ A child alone, without other humans, will not develop language
⚫ A deaf child in a hearing family, will invent “home signs”
Regular across situations, some combining
Sometimes hearing people use in return, sometimes not
Like any other language
⚫ Until about 40 years ago, no critical mass in Nicaragua
⚫ Then, children brought together into a school
⚫ Developed a pidgin, and then a creole
⚫ Now a complex languag
American Sign Language (ASL)
- based in french
- Natural signed language used in the U.S, English-speaking Canada, & parts of Mexico
- Approximately 2 million signers
- History of ASL
Origins
Deaf community
ASL vs. Sign Systems
Why is ASL important to study?
- Language = Speech
- Separate but parallel development
- Unique way to look at language
processing
Foundations of Sign Perception in Infancy
⚫ Preference for speech
(Vouloumanos & Werker,
Developmental Science, 2004; 2007)
⚫ Preference for sign (Krentz
& Hilldebrandt, 2008)
⚫ Hearing infants 6 prefered L & 10
months (no preference)
⚫ L – sign: e.g. about
waiting for the bus
⚫ R – pantomime: e.g.
putting on makeup
⚫ Preferential Looking
Background: Phonology
⚫4 sign components:
1. Location: where sign is in relation to body
2. Movement: how hand moves in space
3. Handshape: actual form of hand
4. Orientation: direction of palm in relation to body
⚫Combine simultaneously but still separate components - minimal pairs
Minimal Pairs
⚫In English: rake vs. lake
[rek] vs [lek]
⚫Only 1 feature/sound differs, all else same
ex
mother touches the queixo vs father touches fourhead
Age related decline in sign discrimination
⚫ Habituation Method
⚫ 4- and 14- months
⚫ Sign Discrimination
⚫ Hearing infants
declined
⚫ Hearing, Sign- learning infants
maintained
⚫ Actually – a bit more nuanced
than that . . . See next slides
Categorical Perception in Sign
Non-signers discriminate small changes along the continuum
Signers show a categorical boundary # 4 & #7
non-signers can see bigger differences between sign that are signers (adults)
because they are not trating as languague
same thing heppens with sign
they are hearing ba-ba -ba-pa hear ba-ba-ba-ba
Categorical Perception of Speech Sounds
by Infants
One- and four-month-olds
were habituated to a tape of
artificial speech sounds.
- Group that habituated to
/ba/ (VOT=20)
dishabituated to /pa/
(VOT=40), and group
habituated to /pa/ (VOT=60)
continued habituation to
/pa/ (VOT =80). - These findings suggest that,
like adults, they did not
discriminate between these
two sounds. (Adapted from
Eimas et al., 1971)
Is there perceptual attunement?
⚫Tested non-signing infants 4 & 14 months
⚫Tested sign learning infants 14 months
⚫Used alternating(sign 4,4,4, 7)/non-alternating task
⚫Tested
2 within category :1 vs 4 and 7 vs 10
1 between category: 4 vs 7
a non-change control: either 4-4 or 7-7
result
same result as in adults
the older the child (14 hearing month) more descrimination(higher within categories-similar signs)
4 months had the same amount as 14 months ASL infants(higher descrimination across category)
Babbling
⚫Spoken language:
Timing: Emerges 7-11
months
Structure: Small set of
phonetic units, repeated CV
pattern [baba, mama]
All babies vocally babble(even deth)
Babbling
⚫Sign Language (Petitto & Marentette, 1991)
Timing:Emerges 7-11 months
Structure: Small set of phonetic units, repeated
pattern
Only children learning sign babble manually
Emerge in order of complexity of production, just as in oral babble
First Words
⚫Norms for 1st spoken words
- 10 months ?
First Signs
⚫Signs earlier than spoken words
⚫Parental reports & monthly videotape sessions
First signs = 8.5 months
⚫But not everyone agrees
those are full signs….
First Signs
⚫ Signs (at least) same time as spoken words
⚫ ALL babies produce non-linguistic gestures (reaching, raising hands, twisting hands like opening jar)
⚫ “Linguistic” gestures = distinct from referring object/action & single, consistent form, naming
⚫ Monthly videotape sessions; elicitation protocol
First signs = 12 months
⚫ Bonvillian & Folven study revisited (1993)
First signs =12.6 months
Signs support object categorization:
At 4- but not 6- months in hearing infants
same things as hearing children( guest lecture - toma)
Pragmatics: Motherese (baby talk?)
⚫Exaggerated speech spoken to infants
⚫Higher pitch
⚫Bigger pitch excursions
⚫Simplified sentences
⚫Motherese in sign
⚫Exaggerated movements
⚫Grammatical markers in face modified
Pronouns
⚫Spoken Language
-Stage of reference confusion (20-24 mos) for 1st person PN (me) and 2nd person PN (you)
Why? Meanings of words (referents) shift in discourse, but children treat them as names
Pronouns error also in sign!(not as much though)
⚫Pointing occurs early in gestures of
children (signing and non-signing)
⚫In ASL - indexical point also is a Pronoun
ME & YOU produced by pointing to referent = the same as the gesture
Iconicity may make acquisition of 1st and 2ndPNs easy for signers
