We examined the changes in movement trajectories of two initially naive students from near the beginning until the end of an introductory course in American Sign Language. The movement patterns increased in speed, symmetry, replicability, and grew more constrained in movement amplitude as the semester progressed. Analysis of phase portraits (graphs of displacement versus velocity) revealed increasing limit-cycle behavior for complicated two-handed signs over the testing sessions. One-handed signs, however, exhibited limit-cycle behavior from the first session.
The claim that American Sign Language (ASL) has creole origins
or remains a creole is examined from a creolist perspective. Applying
criteria based on the work of a number of creole researchers
we find that the evidence for creole origins of ASL fails to meet
any usual definition of a creole. Lexical and morphosyntactic similarities
between ASL and other signed languages (especially French
Sign Language) are discussed in terms of lexical borrowing and
the characteristics unique to the transmission of visual/spatial languages,
respectively.
I used two experimental designs to investigate the perception of fluency by native Deaf signers. In experiment 1, seven native signers described the signing ability of other native signers judged to have a wide range of signing ability. The judges provided numerical ratings and descriptions of signing skill. These positive and negative descriptions were used in experiment 2 to determine if the judgments were reliable, valid, and predictive of fluency. In this study a different group of five raters judged the same signing samples using 21 pairs of criteria gleaned from experiment 1. Between- and within-group analyses demonstrated that these criteria could be used to reliably judge and predict fluency. Rate of signing was not found to be a crucial criterion for fluency. I discuss implications for the types of sign models used with Deaf children and teaching of ASL to second language users.
The present investigation explored recognition memory for sign language vocabulary in sign language students. Ten beginning and ten advanced students were asked to judge their familiarity with 50 old and 50 new vocabulary items presented in both written (sign gloss) and signed stimulus modes. Both groups were able to recognize vocabulary items with a high degree of accuracy but there were significant differences in their performance with respect to signed versus written modes. Implications for teaching American Sign Language are discussed.
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