Acquisition of Sign Language as a Second Language

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Chen Pichler ◽  
Elena Koulidobrova
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sign Language

Teaching South African Sign Language as a second language to university students: an integrated pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marga Stander ◽  
Annemarie Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Specific Method ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Popular Language ◽  
Output Hypothesis

Abstract South African Sign Language (SASL) has become an increasingly popular language that hearing university students want to learn as a second language. This requires more qualified SASL instructors and new curricula at South African universities. This paper considers ways in which challenges associated with the teaching and learning of SASL can be overcome. Krashen’s Comprehension Input Hypothesis and Swain’s Output Hypothesis form the theoretical framework as reference to our own independent experience, praxis, and reflection. This study considered different teaching methods and pedagogies and found the post-method approach suggested by Kumaravadivelu (2003) a viable method for teaching SASL as a second language. This method aligns with the method we had independently identified as the most empowering for teachers to create their own strategies focused on their intuition, experiences and pedagogy. Therefore, we do not favour one specific method above another, but rather adopt an integrated approach. We make a few suggestions regarding sign language curriculum content and further research in sign language as an L2, which need urgent attention.

Swedish Sign Language as a Second Language

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Nilsson ◽  
Krister Schönström
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sign Language

scholarly journals Constructed Action in American Sign Language: A Look at Second Language Learners in a Second Modality

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Kim B. Kurz ◽  
Kellie Mullaney ◽  
Corrine Occhino
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
Signed Language

Constructed action is a cover term used in signed language linguistics to describe multi-functional constructions which encode perspective-taking and viewpoint. Within constructed action, viewpoint constructions serve to create discourse coherence by allowing signers to share perspectives and psychological states. Character, observer, and blended viewpoint constructions have been well documented in signed language literature in Deaf signers. However, little is known about hearing second language learners’ use of constructed action or about the acquisition and use of viewpoint constructions. We investigate the acquisition of viewpoint constructions in 11 college students acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language in a second modality (M2L2). Participants viewed video clips from the cartoon Canary Row and were asked to “retell the story as if you were telling it to a deaf friend”. We analyzed the signed narratives for time spent in character, observer, and blended viewpoints. Our results show that despite predictions of an overall increase in use of all types of viewpoint constructions, students varied in their time spent in observer and character viewpoints, while blended viewpoint was rarely observed. We frame our preliminary findings within the context of M2L2 learning, briefly discussing how gestural strategies used in multimodal speech-gesture constructions may influence learning trajectories.

LEARNING TO SEE: TEACHING AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (2nd ed.).Sherman Wilcox and Phyllis Perrin Wilcox. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1997. Pp. x + 145. $19.95 cloth.

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-125
Author(s):  
Timothy Reagan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
University Level

American Sign Language (ASL), both as the focus of scholarly study and as an increasingly popular foreign-language option for many secondary and university level students, has made remarkable strides during recent years. With respect to the linguistics of ASL, there has been a veritable revolution in our understanding of the nature, structure, and complexity of the language since the publication of William Stokoe's landmark Sign Language Structure in 1960. Works on both theoretical aspects of the linguistics of ASL and on the sociolinguistics of the Deaf community now abound, and the overall quality of such works is impressively high. Also widely available now are textbooks designed to teach ASL as a second language. Such textbooks vary dramatically in quality, ranging from phrasebook and lexical guides to very thorough and up-to-date works focusing on communicative competence in ASL.

Tweetaligheid en Alfabetisering Van Doven

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
Bob Kolsters
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Language Of Instruction ◽  
Educational Method ◽  
Notation System ◽  
Schools For The Deaf ◽  
Metalinguistic Knowledge

Schools for the deaf in the Netherlands are currently looking for ways of converting their current education into bilingual education. The first language of prelingual deaf children in the Netherlands is Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN); their second language is Dutch. In the first part of the thesis, the bilingual situation of prelingual deaf children is examined with the help of a theoretical framework designed by J. Cummins and a model designed by J. Kurvers. Cummins' theoretical framework takes a thorough look at language development in different bilingual situations. Kurvers' model examines the different ways for bilingual people to obtain literacy. Both theories support the view that in order to stimulate development of the first and the second language, sign language should be the language of instruction in schools for the deaf as well as the language in which prelingual deaf children obtain literacy. Since this implies the use of a notation system for sign language in deaf education, the second part of the thesis deals with the design of a prototype of an educational method that stimulates metalinguistic knowledge with the help of such a notation system.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Teaching-Learning Process of Brazilian Sign Language as a Second Language in Higher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Roberto Cesar Reis da Costa
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Issues ◽  
Evaluation Tool ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Brazilian Sign Language ◽  
Teaching Learning

The focus of this paper is to propose an evaluation tool to assess the teaching-learning process of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) to hearing students in Higher Education. The current Brazilian laws dealing with the accessibility of the deaf and the teaching of Libras will be concisely posited and argued, and after that an overview on linguistic aspects of Libras will be highlighted prior to discussing the teaching of this language as a Second Language (L2). Also, it will be discussed briefly the relevance of using strategies to Libras teaching as L2 and then the proposal to evaluate teaching and learning processes of the language at stake will be finally described. As a conclusion, developing tools as well as presenting proposals for the teaching of sign languages might be ways to highlight and discuss pedagogical issues about the teaching of the sign languages. The paper outcomes are useful for scholars and learners who are researching and implementing tools for Libras teaching as L2.

First-Language Acquisition After Childhood Differs From Second-Language Acquisition

1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1258-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel I. Mayberry
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Late Childhood ◽  
First Language Acquisition

This study determined whether the long-range outcome of first-language acquisition, when the learning begins after early childhood, is similar to that of second-language acquisition. Subjects were 36 deaf adults who had contrasting histories of spoken and sign language acquisition. Twenty-seven subjects were born deaf and began to acquire American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language at ages ranging from infancy to late childhood. Nine other subjects were born with normal hearing, which they lost in late childhood; they subsequently acquired ASL as a second language (because they had acquired spoken English as a first language in early childhood). ASL sentence processing was measured by recall of long and complex sentences and short-term memory for signed digits. Subjects who acquired ASL as a second language after childhood outperformed those who acquired it as a first language at exactly the same age. In addition, the performance of the subjects who acquired ASL as a first language declined in association with increasing age of acquisition. Effects were most apparent for sentence processing skills related to lexical identification, grammatical acceptability, and memory for sentence meaning. No effects were found for skills related to fine-motor production and pattern segmentation.

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