Cripping the “Delay”: Multilingualism-Related Consequences of Re-Labeling Language Deprivation Systems

Koulidobrova, Elena; Pichler, Chen

doi:10.3389/fcomm.2021.751457

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…Are DHH children unable to communicate until their first contact with a natural language? Koulidobrova and Pichler (2021) have argued that DHH children with late AoA are not completely language deprived during the time between birth and first contact with a language (through contact with signing adults, CI operations, etc.). Instead, this group will develop some linguistic features before acquiring their first natural language, which Koulidobrova and Pichler (2021) named initial systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing Development in DHH Students: A Bimodal Bilingual Approach

Gärdenfors

2022

The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

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This article describes the lexical and syntactic development of written narratives in 24 deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students aged between 8 and 18 and takes into account how their varying linguistic backgrounds may predict their written performance. All participants use spoken Swedish, but the study also considers their proficiency in Swedish Sign language, which ranged from zero to fluent. Their narrative texts were analyzed in regard to syntax and lexicon, which demonstrated a strong developmental trend in which increased age predicted more complex texts. Age of acquisition did not predict any writing outcome, which is suggested to occur because all participants were exposed to language early, that is, within the critical time window for language acquisition. Sign language proficiency showed a tendency to predict adjective density and number of clauses, which encourages future research in this area, especially since this connection argues for the benefits of early access to a language and the positive relationship between sign language proficiency and writing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing Development in DHH Students: A Bimodal Bilingual Approach

Gärdenfors

2022

The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

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“…However, this is not the case with late-signing deaf adults since they are highly proficient in the language that they learnt later in their lives. Furthermore, for these late-signing deaf parents, their sign language can be considered as their second language since they were already using an initial communication system before acquiring a sign language (Henner and Robinson, 2021;Koulidobrova and Pichler, 2021). Thus, it might be more meaningful to consider speakers who are highly proficient in their later-acquired language (i.e., reversed dominance bilinguals) for comparison.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Use in Deaf Children With Early-Signing Versus Late-Signing Deaf Parents

Sumer

Özyürek

2022

Front. Commun.

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Previous research has shown that spatial language is sensitive to the effects of delayed language exposure. Locative encodings of late-signing deaf adults varied from those of early-signing deaf adults in the preferred types of linguistic forms. In the current study, we investigated whether such differences would be found in spatial language use of deaf children with deaf parents who are either early or late signers of Turkish Sign Language (TİD). We analyzed locative encodings elicited from these two groups of deaf children for the use of different linguistic forms and the types of classifier handshapes. Our findings revealed differences between these two groups of deaf children in their preferred types of linguistic forms, which showed parallels to differences between late versus early deaf adult signers as reported by earlier studies. Deaf children in the current study, however, were similar to each other in the type of classifier handshapes that they used in their classifier constructions. Our findings have implications for expanding current knowledge on to what extent variation in language input (i.e., from early vs. late deaf signers) is reflected in children’s productions as well as the role of linguistic input on language development in general.

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“…Another limitation of this research was the narrow scope of variables included in the background questionnaire, which should be expanded so that we can collect specific information about the frequency and intensity of contact with sign language by the participants and people from their close surroundings (e.g., family members, teachers, tutors) and the educational environment (whether the participants, as students, spent most of the time at a boarding school or at home; whether the participants interacted with deaf peers who were native signers even though they attended an oral school, etc.). This kind of information is necessary for the subtle differentiation of language learning histories and to characterize early communication systems such as homesign, which, according to Koulidobrova and Pichler (2021) , should be considered the “initial systems” used by participants, and included in the consideration of language learning outcomes. Another limitation in the study was the fact that we relied on participants’ self-assessment that their Polish language knowledge was weak or very weak rather than using a direct assessment.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Age-of-Acquisition on Proficiency in Polish Sign Language: Insights to the Critical Period Hypothesis

et al. 2022

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This study focuses on the relationship between the age of acquisition of Polish Sign Language (PJM) by deaf individuals and their receptive language skills at the phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Sixty Deaf signers of PJM were recruited into three equal groups (n = 20): (1) a group exposed to PJM from birth from their deaf parents; (2) a group of childhood learners of PJM, who reported learning PJM between 4 and 8 years; (3) a group of adolescent learners of PJM, who reported learning PJM between 9 and 13 years. The PJM Perception and Comprehension Test was used to assess three aspects of language processing: phonological, morphological and syntactic. Participants were asked to decide whether a series of signs and sentences were acceptable in PJM. Results show that the age of PJM acquisition has a significant impact on performance on this task. The earlier deaf people acquire PJM, the more likely they were to distinguish signs and sentences considered permissible and impermissible in PJM by native signers. Native signers had significantly greater accuracy on the phonological, morphological, and syntactic items than either the Childhood or the Adolescent signers. Further, the Childhood signers had significantly greater accuracy than the Adolescent signers on all three parts of the test. Comparing performance on specific structures targeted within each part of the test revealed that multi-channel signs and negative suffixes posed the greatest challenge for Adolescent signers relative to the Native signers. The above results provide evidence from a less-commonly studied signed language that the age of onset of first language acquisition affects ultimate outcomes in language acquisition across all levels of grammatical structure. In addition, this research corroborates prior studies demonstrating that the critical period is independent of language modality. Contrary to a common public health assumption that early exposure to language is less vital to signed than to spoken language development, the results of this study demonstrate that early exposure to a signed language promotes sensitivity to phonological, morphological and syntactic patterns in language.

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Cripping the “Delay”: Multilingualism-Related Consequences of Re-Labeling Language Deprivation Systems

Cited by 17 publications

References 82 publications

Writing Development in DHH Students: A Bimodal Bilingual Approach

Writing Development in DHH Students: A Bimodal Bilingual Approach

Language Use in Deaf Children With Early-Signing Versus Late-Signing Deaf Parents

Effects of Age-of-Acquisition on Proficiency in Polish Sign Language: Insights to the Critical Period Hypothesis

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