Reference tracking in early stages of different modality L2 acquisition: Limited over-explicitness in novice ASL signers’ referring expressions

Abstract

Previous research on reference tracking has revealed a tendency towards over-explicitness in second language (L2) learners. Only limited evidence exists that this trend extends to situations where the learner’s first and second languages do not share a sensory-motor modality. Using a story-telling paradigm, this study examined how hearing novice L2 learners accomplish reference tracking in American Sign Language (ASL), and whether they transfer strategies from gesture. Our results revealed limited evidence of over-explicitness. Instead there was an overall similarity in the L2 learners’ reference tracking to that of a native signer control group, even in the use of lexical nominals, pronouns and zero anaphora – areas where research on spoken L2 reference tracking predicts differences. Our data also revealed, however, that L2 learners have problems with the referential value of ASL classifiers, and with target-like use of zero anaphora from different verb types, as well as spatial modification. This suggests that over-explicitness occurs in the early stages of different modality L2 acquisition to a limited extent. We found no evidence of gestural transfer. Finally, we found that L2 learners reintroduce more than native signers, which could indicate that they, unlike native signers are not yet capable of utilizing the affordances of the visual modality to reference multiple entities simultaneously

Turkish-Dutch bilinguals maintain language-specific reference tracking strategies in elicited narratives

“…This systematic relation between the discourse status of referents (i.e. whether a referent is (re)introduced or maintained) and the richness of the REs that are used for those referents has been found for several spoken as well as signed languages (Arnold, 1998;Frederiksen & Mayberry, 2018;Hickmann & Hendriks, 1999;Perniss & Özyürek, 2015). Languages, however, might show cross-linguistic differences with regard to the reduced RE form they favour.…”

“…Given the presence of many first-generation immigrants in the community, our participants’ social networks will have always included many people whose Dutch is that of a learner, from beginners’ level to very advanced. L2 learners may make more use of explicit REs, such as overt pronouns, given that over-explicitness is often reported for L2 learners (Frederiksen & Mayberry, 2018; Gullberg, 2006; Hendriks, 2003). As a result, null pronouns might have been more infrequent in the input for our bilingual second-generation participants than for their monolingual Dutch peers.…”

“…Over-explicitness in the L2 has been observed for learners of both pro-drop (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006; Yoshioka, 2008) and non-pro-drop languages (Gullberg, 2006), and it seems to be modulated by language proficiency. Over-explicitness usually occurs in the discourse when the L2 learners reach intermediate proficiency (Frederiksen & Mayberry, 2018; Hendriks, 2003) and disappears with high proficiency (Polio, 1995).…”

How are signed languages learned as second languages?

“…L2 learners of spoken pro‐drop (null‐subject) languages even with an advanced level command of the target language will produce overt subjects in contexts where native speakers would not have produced them (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006). There are now a small number of papers examining how hearing adult learners of sign learn to use referring expressions (Bel, Ortells, & Morgan, 2015; Frederiksen & Mayberry, 2019; Gulamani, Marshall & Morgan, 2020; Perniss & Ozyürek, 2015). The Bel et al (2015) study involved 13 advanced adult learners of Catalan Sign Language (LSC) who were enrolled on a sign language interpreter training course and had experienced 600 h of formal exposure to LSC.…”

On the status of transfer in adult third language acquisition of early bilinguals

“…Debates have been articulated around two major questions: (a) what factors condition selection between the L1 and the L2? and (b) does the grammar of one of the previously acquired languages transfer in whole (full transfer, a popular notion in L2 acquisition; [ 5 ]), or does transfer happen over time and only for individual grammatical properties [ 9 , 10 ]? These two options entail different predictions from the outset.…”