Child language acquisition research on indigenous African sign languages: A commentary on Kidd and Garcia (2022)

Abstract

It is not always the case that an endangered language goes through a revitalisation programme. For most endangered languages, there are no attempts for revitalisation, and we may never hear of them, nor understand their child language acquisition process. Currently, our understanding of sign language acquisition by children is framed by the research on the few sign languages that have child language acquisition research projects. There is a dearth of research on child language acquisition of indigenous African sign languages.

Where to from here? Increasing language coverage while building a more diverse discipline

“…The commentaries by Berman (2022), Edward (2022), Hellwig (2022), de León (2022), Lillo-Martin and Hochgesang (2022), Sagna et al (2022) and Sultana (2022) all discussed specific issues concerning languages or language families they have worked on, revealing the rich insights we gain when we study what Pye (2022) calls ‘the dark matter of the linguistic universe’ (p. 799). Together these commentaries highlight two crucial variables we are in danger of taking for granted when we limit ourselves to English and a handful of other Indo-European languages: the language environment (see also Foushee & Casillas, 2022) and linguistic diversity.…”

“…Research on signed languages, which are themselves highly diverse (e.g. the use of legs as articulators and the use of larger signing space in African signed languages, Edward, 2022), highlights the flexibility of the language faculty and forces us to think carefully about the role of input in acquisition (Lillo-Martin & Hochgesang, 2022). Both Rochanavibhata and Marian (2022) and Yip and Matthews (2022) remind us that research on acquisition in multilingual contexts reveals the complex nature in which speakers and signers master the linguistic and cultural repertoire of their languages.…”

The acquisition of sign languages in rural contexts – what can we do when samples will always be ‘too small’?

“…This bias towards urban languages is systematic and wide reaching: in the relatively new field of sign language acquisition, research stems primarily from a few urban sign languages used in the Global North (Edward, 2022;Lillo-Martin & Henner, 2021), with some additional work from urban centres of other parts of the world (e.g., Brazilian Sign Language: Karnopp, 2008;Hong Kong Sign Language: Lam & Tang, 2015;Pan & Tang, 2017;Nicaraguan Sign Language: Senghas, Kita, & Özyürek, 2004). Furthermore, some scholars have focused on various aspects of signing systems used by (individual) deaf children and their hearing families (e.g., Mexico : Haviland, 2022;Guatemala: Horton, 2018;Peru: Neveu, 2019).…”