When Is a Difference Really Different? Learners’ Discrimination of Linguistic Contrasts in American Sign Language

Abstract

Learners' ability to recognize linguistic contrasts in American Sign Language (ASL) was investigated using a paired-comparison discrimination task. Minimal pairs containing contrasts in five linguistic categories (i.e., the formational parameters of movement, handshape, orientation, and location in ASL phonology, and a category comprised of contrasts in complex morphology) were presented in sentence contexts to a sample of 127 hearing learners at beginning and intermediate levels of proficiency and 10 Deaf native signers. Participants' responses were analyzed to determine the relative difficulty of the linguistic categories and the effect of proficiency level on performance. The results indicated that movement contrasts were the most difficult and location contrasts the easiest, with the other categories of stimuli of intermediate difficulty. These findings have implications for language learning in situations in which the first language is a spoken language and the second language (L2) is a signed language. In such situations, the construct of language transfer does not apply to the acquisition of L2 phonology because of fundamental differences between the phonological systems of signed and spoken languages, which are associated with differences between the modalities of speech and sign.The authors are grateful to Tom Weymann and Sarah Schley for their assistance in conducting the data analysis, Gaurav Mathur and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and helpful suggestions, and Joe Hamilton, Jenamarie Bacot, and Jon Lejeune for helping to develop and record the stimuli.

Phonological substitution errors in L2 ASL sentence processing by hearing M2L2 learners

“…Taken together, it seems as though not only do M2L2 learners have more errors in their perception of movement (e.g. Bochner et al, 2011), but also in their production of the movement parameter (e.g. Cull, 2014;McDermid, 2014;Rosen, 2004).…”

postprint - Predicting Sign Learning in Hearing Adults

“…In support of the latter view, participants in our study were not instructed on whether they should rehearse any of the movements and few spontaneously chose to do so. Moreover, research on the perception and production of signs by adult signers and nonsigners typically finds that the movement parameter is the most error prone; followed by handshape and orientation; and finally location (Bochner et al, 2011;Bochner et al, 2015;Mann et al, 2010;Ortega & Morgan, 2015;. Importantly, handshape, orientation, and location are features that can be represented in static visual imagery.…”

Input processing at first exposure to a sign language

“…Developmental studies have shown that location is the first parameter to be acquired, handshape is the most difficult, and movement falls in between (Conlin et al, 2000;Marentette and Mayberry, 2000;Morgan, 2006). There are few empirical studies investigating the emergence of a visual phonological system in hearing L2 learners but the scant evidence suggests that they are also mastered at different stages, both in production (Jissink, 2005;Ortega, 2013) and perception (Bochner et al, 2011). Despite there not being general consensus of an order of acquisition of the parameters of signs, evidence suggests that each parameter has its own intrinsic complexity, and as a result they are mastered at different stages by L2 learners.…”