Space Oddities: The Acquisition of Agreement Verbs by L2 Learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands

Boers-Visker, Eveline; Pfau, Roland

doi:10.1111/modl.12676

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Despite the growth of interest in researching the fields of sign second language acquisition (SSLA) and sign language pedagogy in the past 30 or so years, there is not much research in SSLA (see Chen Pichler and Koulidobrova, 2016;Boers-Visker and Pfau, 2020;Rosen, 2020;Schönström, 2021). While spoken languages are oral-aural, signed languages are gestural-visual.…”

Section: Background Second Language and Second Modality Learnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second language learning of depiction in a different modality: The case of sign language acquisition

Kurz

Kartheiser²,

Hauser³

2023

Front. Commun.

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This study investigated the acquisition of depicting signs (DS) among students learning a signed language as their second-modality and second-language (M2L2) language. Depicting signs, broadly described, illustrate actions and states. This study sample includes 75 M2L2 students who were recruited from college-level American Sign Language (ASL) courses who watched and described three short clips from Canary Row the best they could in ASL. Four types of DS were coded in the students' videorecorded retellings: (1) entity depicting signs (EDS); (2) body part depicting signs (BPDS); (3) handling depicting signs (HDS); and (4) size-and-shape specifiers (SASS). Results revealed that SASS and HDS increase in instances as students advance in their ASL learning and comprehension. However, EDS expressions did not have a relationship with their ASL comprehension. ASL 2 students produced less DS than the ASL 1 students but did not differ from the ASL 3+ students. There were no differences in instances of BPDS among the three groups of L2 learners although their ability to produce BPDS was correlated with their ASL comprehension. This study is the first to systematically elicit depicting signs from M2L2 learners in a narrative context. The results have important implications for the field of sign language pedagogy and instruction. Future research, particularly cross-sectional and/or longitudinal studies, is needed to explore the trajectory of the acquisition of DS and identify evidence-based pedagogical approaches for teaching depicting signs to M2L2 students.

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Section: Background Second Language and Second Modality Learnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second language learning of depiction in a different modality: The case of sign language acquisition

Kurz

Kartheiser²,

Hauser³

2023

Front. Commun.

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“…Regarding vocabulary, M2L2 studies of sign languages by Taub (2001) and Ortega et al (2019) showed that the learners borrowed gestures from their spoken language community in their sign productions. A study by Boers-Visker and Pfau (2020) found that M2L2 learners tend to produce frozen verb signs without modifying them into correctly articulated verbs in their discourses.…”

Section: Cross Language Transfer In the Acquisition Of A Sign Languag...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to the Special Issue: Learning Sign Languages as Additional Languages: Considering Language‐ and Modality‐Specific Factors

Rosen,

Quinto‐Pozos

2023

Language Learning

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Additional language (L2/Ln) research largely focuses on learners whose first languages are spoken and who are learning additional spoken languages. In the past few decades, sign languages have become increasingly popular for hearing students in schools. These students must not only learn the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages but also manage a different modality (that is, the channels of production and reception of language) than their first language. This raises questions about the role of both language and modality in the L2/Ln learning of sign languages for non‐signers. In other cases, deaf and hearing signers of a sign language learn a different sign language, raising questions about L2/Ln learning in the signed modality. This Special Issue consists of empirical contributions and a conceptual review article that examine how language and modality shape the learning of sign languages as additional languages. Theoretical issues concerning learning a sign language as another language are discussed.

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“…Research on the SL of the Netherlands has examined the L2 acquisition of the sign space in L2 signers, specifically the development of the use of space and depicting signs (labeled as classifier predicates) (Boers-Visker & van den Bogaerde, 2019) and agreement verbs (Boers-Visker, 2020). These studies concluded that these structures were a challenge for L2 learners to acquire.…”

Section: Sl-specific Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, in the free production data of two L2 signers, the use of depicting signs was absent in the beginning (Boers-Visker & van den Bogaerde, 2019). On the other hand, the use of depicting signs was present relatively early in elicitation data (Boers-Visker, 2020).…”

Section: Sl-specific Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…International research on the L2 acquisition of SLs is in a very early phase and is a small and emerging field (for overviews, seeBoers-Visker, 2020, amd Chen Pichler & Kouldidobrova, 2016. Most of the previous studies that have concerned any kind of research question related to L2 signers have in fact not been based on the typical questions derived from SLA theoretical or methodological frameworks.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Sign languages and second language acquisition research: An introduction

Schönström¹

2021

Journal of the European Second Language Association

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In recent years there has been a growing interest in sign second language acquisition (SSLA). However, research in this area is sparse. As signed and spoken languages are expressed in different modalities, there is a great potential for broadening our understanding of the mechanisms and the acquisition processes of learning a (second) language through SSLA research. In addition, the application of existing SLA knowledge to sign languages can bring new insights into the generalizability of SLA theories and descriptions, to see whether they hold true for sign languages. In this paper I give a brief overview of sign language and SSLA research, together with insights from the research on iconicity and gestures and its role for SSLA, including examples from my own studies on L2 signers. The paper concludes with a discussion of both the potential and challenges of combining sign language and SLA research, providing some notes towards directions for future research.

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Space Oddities: The Acquisition of Agreement Verbs by L2 Learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

Second language learning of depiction in a different modality: The case of sign language acquisition

Second language learning of depiction in a different modality: The case of sign language acquisition

Introduction to the Special Issue: Learning Sign Languages as Additional Languages: Considering Language‐ and Modality‐Specific Factors

Sign languages and second language acquisition research: An introduction

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