2018
DOI: 10.1017/s0305000918000417
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Acquiring a first language in adolescence: the case of basic word order in American Sign Language

Abstract: Previous studies suggest that age of acquisition affects the outcomes of learning, especially at the morphosyntactic level. Unknown is how syntactic development is affected by increased cognitive maturity and delayed language onset. The current paper studied the early syntactic development of adolescent first language learners by examining word order patterns in American Sign Language (ASL). ASL uses a basic Subject–Verb–Object order, but also employs multiple word order variations. Child learners produce vari… Show more

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Cited by 29 publications
(33 citation statements)
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“…Elsewhere we have reported in detail on the language development and neurolinguistic processing of these case studies. Despite wide variation in their early home environments, these three cases of childhood language deprivation showed similar patterns of ASL acquisition (Ramírez et al, 2013; Cheng and Mayberry, 2019). They can comprehend some basic syntactic structures but show difficulties with morpho-syntax and complex sentence structures.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 95%
“…Elsewhere we have reported in detail on the language development and neurolinguistic processing of these case studies. Despite wide variation in their early home environments, these three cases of childhood language deprivation showed similar patterns of ASL acquisition (Ramírez et al, 2013; Cheng and Mayberry, 2019). They can comprehend some basic syntactic structures but show difficulties with morpho-syntax and complex sentence structures.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 95%
“…Longitudinal studies investigating the developmental trajectories of sign language acquisition of deaf adolescent late signers compared to younger native signing children (groups matched in terms of the years of exposure to language) found similar acquisition patterns in the development of mean length of utterance and sentence complexity (see Ramirez et al, 2013). Additionally, a study by Cheng and Mayberry (2019) investigating the developmental trajectories of 3 deaf adolescent late signers (data collected longitudinally from 12 months to 6 years of ASL exposure) show that deaf adolescent signers go through stages similar to the literature reported for native signing deaf children in the development of canonical word order. Similarly, late signing children who are exposed to sign language around age 6 showed comparable performance in all of the language measures (e.g., Mean Length of Utterance) to native signing deaf children who have equal years of exposure to sign language (Berk & Lillo-Martin, 2012).…”
Section: Effects Of Late Exposure On Sign Language Developmentmentioning
confidence: 95%
“…Despite being cognitively mature, adolescents acquiring language for the first time begin the process by learning vocabulary, which they subsequently combine into single predicate utterances. The older the age onset of L1 experience, the less likely the learner will progress to more complex morphological and syntactic structures (Cheng & Mayberry, under review; Mayberry, Cheng, Hatrak & Ilkbasaran, 2017). Although the infant brain shows activation in response to spoken language in the expected left hemisphere areas in response to language (Dehaene-Lambertz, Dehaene & Hertz-Pannier, 2002), multiple neural changes that occur throughout childhood affect the brain language system as well.…”
Section: Creating the Capacity To Learn Languagementioning
confidence: 99%