Deaf Children’s ASL Vocabulary and ASL Syntax Knowledge Supports English Knowledge

Abstract

The current study contributes empirical data to our understanding of how knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) syntax aids reading print English for deaf children who are bilingual and bimodal in ASL and English print. The first analysis, a conceptual replication of Hoffmeister ( 2000), showed that performance on the American Sign Language Assessment Instrument correlated with the Sanford Achievement Test—Reading Comprehension (SAT-RC) and the Rhode Island Test of Language Structures (RITLS, Engen & Engen, 1983). The second analysis was a quantile regression using ASL assessments to predict English print abilities. Different ASL skills were important for English reading comprehension (SAT-RC) versus understanding English syntax (RITLS); the relationship between ASL skills and English print performance also varied for students at different English print ability levels. Strikingly, knowledge of ASL syntax was robustly correlated with knowledge of English syntax at all ability levels. Our findings provide novel and strong evidence for the impact of ASL on the development of English literacy.

Learning a Sign Language Does Not Hinder Acquisition of a Spoken Language

“…Other researchers have disputed this logic on the basis that sign languages have no written form and therefore cannot support written language proficiency (e.g., Knoors & Marschark, 2012 ; Mayer & Wells, 1996 ). Nevertheless, several studies have now empirically demonstrated that sign language proficiency is among the strongest predictors of written language skills among deaf children ( Hoffmeister et al, 2022 ; Hrastinski & Wilbur, 2016 ; McQuarrie & Abbott, 2013 ; Novogrodsky et al, 2014 ; Scott & Hoffmeister, 2018 ; Wolbers et al, 2014 ). The correlation between ASL skills and written English holds for DHH children with hearing parents ( Freel et al, 2011 ; Hoffmeister, 2000 ; Hoffmeister et al, 2022 ; Mayberry, 2007 ; Strong & Prinz, 1997 ).…”

“…The second argument that learning a sign language may support spoken language acquisition is that sign language acquisition can prevent language deprivation and its sequelae, which, in turn, may make spoken language learning easier (e.g., Davidson et al, 2014 ). Much of the research demonstrating the negative effects of language deprivation has examined how various degrees of sign language exposure affect different domains of development, finding that children with more sign language exposure consistently outperform children with less sign language exposure ( Hoffmeister et al, 2022 ; Woll, 2018 ). The results demonstrate not only that lack of language input during the critical period of early childhood can be damaging but also that sign language exposure can mitigate the negative effects of language deprivation.…”

Syntactic encoding in written language production by deaf writers: A structural priming study and a comparison with hearing writers.

“…Evidence of cross-linguistic influence of the signed first language (L1) on a second language or additional language (L2) has been found in studies of deaf reading (Meade et al, 2017;Morford et al, 2017;Pan et al, 2015;Thierfelder et al, 2020b) and writing (Thierfelder & Stapleton, 2016;Wolbers et al, 2014). Furthermore, linguistic knowledge in the signed L1 has been found to positively support the development of L2 literacy (Hoffmeister et al, 2021;Scott, 2022). While cross-linguistic transfer is a common feature of both deaf bimodal bilinguals and hearing bilinguals/multilinguals, deaf bimodal bilinguals are also unique from the general hearing population in that they are primary users of a natural visual language who acquired literacy skills with limited auditory language input.…”

Deaf Children Need Rich Language Input from the Start: Support in Advising Parents

“…It also correlates positively to a facility with spoken language [ 133 , 134 ]. Sign language knowledge simply supports spoken language knowledge across the board [ 135 , 136 , 137 ], and this advantage goes both ways: sign language and spoken language promote the development of the other [ 67 , 127 , 133 , 138 , 139 , 140 , 141 ]. One way that signing can help a deaf child develop a spoken language is that signing directs visual attention to the participants in a conversation, an important step in communication in general and in recognizing lip actions [ 142 ] (see p. 1117) and in turn-taking in conversation [ 143 ].…”