More Than One Language

Spelorzi, Roberta; Schnelten, Eva-Maria; Mathers, Candice; Sorace, Antonella

doi:10.4324/9781003152194-5

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Such competition can have a negative influence on learning a language” (p. 293). Arguments that bilingualism is harmful have largely been discredited (see the study of Spelorzi et al, 2021 , for a review, and García & Sung, 2018 , for a review on the history of bilingual education in the United States), though as Knoors and Marschark suggest, some continue to argue that bilingualism is uniquely harmful for DHH children. For spoken language bilinguals, the amount of input a child receives in one language is related to their acquisition of that language; indeed, below some threshold amount of input, children might not learn that language sufficiently enough for functional communication (see the study of Hoff et al, 2012 , for a discussion).…”

Section: Arguments That Sign Language Will Harm Spoken Language Acqui...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning a Sign Language Does Not Hinder Acquisition of a Spoken Language

Pontecorvo

Higgins

Mora

et al. 2023

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether and how learning American Sign Language (ASL) is associated with spoken English skills in a sample of ASL–English bilingual deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children. Method: This cross-sectional study of vocabulary size included 56 DHH children between 8 and 60 months of age who were learning both ASL and spoken English and had hearing parents. English and ASL vocabulary were independently assessed via parent report checklists. Results: ASL vocabulary size positively correlated with spoken English vocabulary size. Spoken English vocabulary sizes in the ASL–English bilingual DHH children in the present sample were comparable to those in previous reports of monolingual DHH children who were learning only English. ASL–English bilingual DHH children had total vocabularies (combining ASL and English) that were equivalent to same-age hearing monolingual children. Children with large ASL vocabularies were more likely to have spoken English vocabularies in the average range based on norms for hearing monolingual children. Conclusions: Contrary to predictions often cited in the literature, acquisition of sign language does not harm spoken vocabulary acquisition. This retrospective, correlational study cannot determine whether there is a causal relationship between sign language and spoken language vocabulary acquisition, but if a causal relationship exists, the evidence here suggests that the effect would be positive. Bilingual DHH children have age-expected vocabularies when considering the entirety of their language skills. We found no evidence to support recommendations that families with DHH children avoid learning sign language. Rather, our findings show that children with early ASL exposure can develop age-appropriate vocabulary skills in both ASL and spoken English.

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Section: Arguments That Sign Language Will Harm Spoken Language Acqui...mentioning

confidence: 99%