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

Abstract

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.

O desenvolvimento da percepção dos contrastes mínimos na língua brasileira de sinais em um grupo de Codas

“…Thus, as the learner's age increases, the performance in perceiving minimal contrast also increases. This finding corroborates with studies 4,7,16 which determined that the bigger the time in contact with sign language, the better the performance in perception skills and production of ASL.…”

“…They are capable of naturally developing either spoken Portuguese or LIBRAS, since they are in contact with both languages since an early age [4][5][6] . Studies show that, just like in oral language, when a sign language is acquired in early childhood, there is facilitation in the learning process of the language, favoring syntax, comprehension and narrative skills, as well as reception and production skills in sign language 1,4,7,8 .…”

Short-term memory span: insights from sign language

“…However, in contrast to English, previous studies of ASL span report a signed span of only 4-5 signs [21][22][23][24] . The shorter signed STM serial span for ASL has often been attributed to the longer item duration for signs than for speech 7,[19][20][21][22]24 . This explanation is based on evidence showing that, across spoken languages, the slower the pronunciation rate (and thus the longer the item duration), the shorter the spoken STM serial span.…”

“…25 ). Given that similar mechanisms seem to underlie serial recall in both spoken and signed STM, at least three factors could explain the shorter signed STM span previously reported [21][22][23][24] . First, the difference might be due to a greater phonological complexity in signs.…”

A Look at the Other 90 Per Cent: Investigating British Sign Language Vocabulary Knowledge in Deaf Children from Different Language Learning Backgrounds

“…The significance of many of these factors has been well documented in the literature, specifically age of onset of deafness (Allen & Osborn, 1984;Marschark & Spencer, 2003), age and level of sign language exposure (Mayberry, 1993(Mayberry, , 1994Mayberry & Eichen, 1991;Mayberry & Fischer, 1989), parental hearing status (Erting, 1994;Mitchell & Karchmer, 2005;Morford & Mayberry, 2000;Moores, 2001;Padden & Humphries, 1988), and quality of language input (Singleton & Newport, 2004). Deaf children's language experiences vary considerably, ranging from deaf parents, who provide early access to language through sign to hearing parents who communicate exclusively through speech.…”