L2 Learners’ Signed Language Processing Relates, in Part, to Perspective‐Taking Skills

Abstract

The comprehension of signed language requires linguistic and visual–spatial processing, such as perspective‐taking for correctly interpreting the layout of a spatial scene. However, little is known about how adult second‐language (L2) learners process visual–spatial constructions in a signed language that they are studying, including which angles of viewing are most challenging to process and whether there are relationships between perspective‐taking and the comprehension of non‐spatial (i.e., non‐scene based) constructions. We examine the performance of 95 intermediate signers of American Sign Language (ASL) on linguistic and non‐linguistic perspective‐taking tests. Half the participants completed a test of narrative comprehension that included visual–spatial scenes, and half took a test of signed phonological and morphophonological discrimination. Performance on linguistic perspective‐taking correlated moderately with performance on the narrative, but not with the discrimination test. These findings support the claim that perspective‐taking skills are yoked to some—but not all—aspects of signed language learning.