Learning Sign Language as a Second Language

Sign languages are learned as second languages across a variety of conditions. Infants sometimes learn sign languages as one of two languages acquired from birth, and children often learn sign languages as second languages in school after having learned a first language, either signed or spoken, in infancy. Sign language bilingualism can be unimodal, as in knowing two sign languages, or bimodal, as in knowing a sign language and a spoken language. A key difference between adult and infant learning is that adults rely on iconicity to remember signs during the initial stage of learning, but infants do not. Individuals whose first experience with language is highly delayed show low levels of second language learning.

[1]  K. Nelson,et al.  Using Mnemonic Explanations to Improve Sign Lexicon Learning With Children & Young Adults , 2013 .

[2]  Mary Ann Buchino.  Hearing Children of Deaf Parents: A Counseling Challenge. , 1990 .

[3]  L. Petitto,et al.  Semantic and Conceptual Knowledge Underlying Bilingual Babies' First Signs and Words , 2002 .

[4]  Shiri Bartman,et al.  Teaching Language to a Two-Year-Old with Autism , 2003 .

[5]  D. Kimbrough Oller,et al.  Lexical Development in Bilingual Infants and Toddlers: Comparison to Monolingual Norms , 1993 .

[6]  Rachel I. Mayberry,et al.  Grammatical processing in American Sign Language: Age of first-language acquisition effects in relation to syntactic structure , 2006 .

[7]  H. Hoemann,et al.  Categorical Coding of Manual & English Alphabet Characters by Beginning Students of American Sign Language , 2013 .

[8]  C. Keske,et al.  Proactive Interference & Language Change in Hearing Adult Students of American Sign Language , 2013 .

[9]  D. Bishop,et al.  Language development in exceptional circumstances , 1988 .

[10]  M. Strong,et al.  A study of the relationship between American sign language and English literacy. , 1997, Journal of deaf studies and deaf education.

[11]  R. Mayberry,et al.  Age constraints on first versus second language acquisition: Evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesis , 2003, Brain and Language.

[12]  R. Mayberry,et al.  First-language acquisition after childhood differs from second-language acquisition: the case of American Sign Language. , 1993, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[13]  Jordan Grafman,et al.  Handbook of Neuropsychology , 1991 .

[14]  Rachel I. Mayberry,et al.  Language acquisition by eye , 2000 .

[15]  Christine Yoshinaga-Itano,et al.  Language of Early- and Later-identified Children With Hearing Loss , 1998, Pediatrics.

[16]  L. Petitto,et al.  Bilingual signed and spoken language acquisition from birth: implications for the mechanisms underlying early bilingual language acquisition , 2001, Journal of Child Language.

[17]  L. Acredolo,et al.  Impact of Symbolic Gesturing on Early Language Development , 2000 .

[18]  Susan J. Parault,et al.  Too Smart for Their Own Good: The Disadvantage of a Superior Processing Capacity for Adult Language Learners , 1999 .

[19]  Rachel I. Mayberry,et al.  The long-lasting advantage of learning sign language in childhood: Another look at the critical period for language acquisition , 1991 .

[20]  R. Mayberry,et al.  Development: Linguistic ability and early language exposure , 2002, Nature.

[21]  R. Mayberry.  Cognitive development in deaf children: the interface of language and perception in neuropsychology , 2002 .

[22]  Elissa L. Newport,et al.  Maturational Constraints on Language Learning , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[23]  Ruth Campbell,et al.  Forced Choice Recognition of Sign in Novice Learners of British Sign Language. , 1992 .

[24]  J. Clibbens.  Signing and lexical development in children with Down syndrome. , 2001, Down's syndrome, research and practice : the journal of the Sarah Duffen Centre.