ASL 280 Unit 2

Bilingual

Individuals who use 2 language regularly

Multilingual

Individuals who use 2+ languages regularly

What is the name of the first Deaf school in France?

Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris (INJS)

Indirect Phonological/Sound-based Route

Involved relationship of letters in a word to sounds, which allows the reader to recognize words they've never seen before (Phonics)

What was the name of the linguist who went to Nicaragua?

Judy Kegl

Early exposed signers vs. Late exposed signers

Late exposed signers have more delays in language acquisition and will never become fully proficient.

Who did Rev. THG convince to come back to America and teach Deaf children?

Laurent Clerc

In early education of the US Deaf, what method was used?

Majority used ASL as language of instruction and it was supported by the hearing community

What was the strongest and oldest variety of ASL?

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language

After Rev. THG and Clerc opened the American School for the Deaf, how many Deaf schools followed?

More than 30 opened

What is the best way to assess multihandicapped/learning disabled Deaf people?

Must use someone fluent in ASL (Deaf person) and a native user; they can understand full range of disability

Do SLs have the same grammar? What does each SL have?

No! Each SL has its own: - Lexicon - Phonology - Morphology - Syntax - Semantics

Do all SLs have the same grammar? What do they have?

No. Each has its own: - Lexicon - Phonology - Morphology - Syntax - Semantics

Did ASL play a large role in TC?

No. Resistance still existed and it was feared that ASL inhibited learning speech, so ASL was only used when a child needed more language support

What is the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD)?

Non-governmental general assembly comprised on 2 Deaf people from every national Deaf assoc (133 total countries)

What is the difference between pantomime and real signed language?

Pantomime is limited to the here and now. Signed Languages are able to talk about the past, present, future, far distances, abstract concepts, and imaginary things

Deaf Education Bill of Rights

Requires Deaf children's communicative needs are respected, including access to peers and teachers who are proficient in the child's primary language (ASL)

Gallaudet University is named after:

Reverend Thomas Hopkinds Gallaudet - Edward Miner Gallaudet founded the school, and named it after his father

After Epee died, who was his successor who continued to use Methodical French Signs?

Sicard

ASL Inflectional Morphology

Signs are added/modified to change the meanng of the sign - Time (past/future signed first) - Aspect (markers show verb is never-ending, intense, etc.)

What is ASL assimilation?

Signs slowly morphing over time

Iconicity

Signs that look like what they mean ex: TREE

Why is MCE difficult to learn, why are children so confused by it?

Since it is artificial, the brain cannot nativize the MCE delivery system. Children are led to ideas about the structure of language, but overgeneralize them. MCE does not allow for prediction of handshapes like ASL. - No natural structures visual children depend on to learn a language

Who reports seeing Deaf people use signs in 360 BC?

Socrates

How do spoken phonology and ASL phonology differ?

Spoken language: sounds and study of pronunciation of words/sounds ASL: how signs are structured and organized (ASL parameters)

What were the 3 stages that occurred in the creation of NicaSL?

Stage 1- Mimicas Stage 2- Pidgin Stage 3- Idiomas (Creole)

Oral History

Study of individuals in a group from anecdotes, autobiographical accounts, and memories of people

Morphology

Study of word formation; how a language creates new words or signs by using smaller unis to build larger units

Institutional History

Study of written/official records or the study of important persons

True or false: Language universals that apply to spoken language can also apply to sign languages.

TRUE. This is why ASL is considered a true, natural language.

What type of Sign Language do Deaf-Blind people use?

Tactile Sign

Bilingual/Bicultural Instruction Goal

Teach English alongside native language so that the child may be exclusively educated in English, and don't fall behind in other studies

In terms of diversity, why is the Deaf community unique?

The Deaf community are minorities within a minority, the have diverse members within the culture

Who wrote the Deaf Education Bill of Rights?

The National Assoc. of the Deaf (NAD)

What did the review of bilingual education in Canada demonstrate?

The greater the incorporation of minority student' language and culture in the curriculum, the greater their success in the curriculum

Morphemes

The smallest meaningful unit in a language; can be free or bound

What does ASL word order depend on?

The spatial, temporal, and kinetic structure of a subject, object, and direction.

Why was a linguist requested to come to Nicaragua?

The students had developed their own complex sign language and the teachers could no longer understand what they were saying

Syntax

The study of sentence structure in a language

What was the Deaf community's reaction to the Milan Conference?

They founded the NAD to preserve ASL, and created films to show to future generations and raise money

True or False, natural sign language already existed before Epee set up his school.

True

True or False, the left hemisphere of the brain is specialized for language processing, the right hemisphere is specialized for visual/spatial processing.

True

True or False: Deaf history goes as far back as 1000 BC

True

True or False: Each country/community/etc. has their own community of sign language users, and that language evolves within that community.

True

True or False: Fingerspelling facilitates English vocab growth, and vocab is learned faster

True

True or False: Late exposed signers have delays in phonological development.

True

True or False: the Maintenance/Additive Bi/Bi model stresses the importance of ASL and English in a Deaf child's life and the need to develop expressive/receptive language abilities in each language.

True

True or False: there are structural similarities among signed languages.

True

True or false: to acheive person integration and economic well-being for a minority is to respect their language rights in education

True

True or false: Hearing families learning ASL at the same time as their Deaf child still provides a huge benefit for the child's language acqusition, even though the parents aren't that proficient.

True! Because of a child's LAD, they only need a small amount of correct input to still develop a language.

True or false: Studies of language acquisition have concluded that the brain is biologically programmed to carryout language acquisition in whatever modality.

True, As long as it is a NATURAL language.

True or False, natural signed languages were developed by Deaf people.

True, that is why they can be considered "natural"

True or False: Homesigns are not consistent and lack formal grammar

True, they are not passed down to other generations

True or False, MCE is an artificial language.

True.

True or False: Deaf children parallel children in early literacy skills, but do not make the transition to later stages of literacy.

True.

True or false: While there were clear similarities in Nicaraguan gestures and NicaSL, NicaSL was not an extension of gestures because they cannot account for the complex grammar in NicaSL

True.

True or False, If there was no other input than Clerc's LSF, ASL wouldn't have become so stable so fast

True. Even though students brought variations of homesigns and contact languages, the already established grammar of LSF allowed for a faster creolization

True or False, ASL does not tend to add on like spoken languages do, but tends to change fundamental structure.

True. Examples of changes in fundamental structure are temporal aspect and a change in part of a segement

True or False, the natural sign language of the French (LSF, Langue des Signes Francasie) was revised by Epee to Methodical French Signs as he believed LSF lacked rules.

True. It is similar to MCE in English

True or false: Even though ASL is a visual-dominant language, the brain's left hemisphere is still where it is processed.

True. Proved by the Gallaudet Brain & Lang. Lab

True or False: The most important factor affecting the ability to use a creole vs. a pidgin is age of entry into the Deaf school, not # of years of exposure.

True. The same number of years at the Deaf school could produce either one

True or False, Deaf children with no langauge are able to invent their own systems of gestures to express themselves.

True. This may be realized as homesign, depending on what the gesture is.

True or False: the US has not recognized ASL at a national level, but has left it up to the states to determine if it is.

True. ~30 states have recognized it.

In terms of nurture, how do children learn language?

Via input and environment. Children exposed to ASL will learn ASL, not a different language (think of CODAs)

When was the Indiana School for the Deaf founded?

in 1843 by William Willard

What is language?

naturally occurring and rule governed, used to construct messages about the past, present, and future

When did oralism resurge in Deaf education in the US?

1860s

When was the first college for the Deaf set up?

1864

When did the Nicaraguan deaf school open?

1977

When was NicaSL officially accepted by schools in Managua?

1992

Creole

A language that is derived from a pidgin (contact language), but has a complex grammar and broad range of uses

Ethnologue

A loge of all the languages of the world

Contact Sign

A natural mixing of 2 languages. Could be more like English, or more like ASL

Communication

A process by which info is exchanged though common systems of symbols, sounds, or behavior

Language

A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventional signs, sounds, or marks having understood meaning

Critical period:

A window of time at the beginning of life (~0-4 yo) where language acquisition is exceptionally fast. - linked to brain maturation - 0 - 3 = Best time - 4 - 6 = Still a chance - Puberty or later = very difficult

What is the most widely used Sign Language in the world?

ASL

Why is verb agreement important in ASL?

ASL does not have a strict word order to indicate who is doing what to whom, it depends on the starting and ending locations of the sign

What is the main difference between ASL and English in terms of how it is processed?

ASL is processed visually and spatially, English is not.

Tactile Sign (TASL)

ASL received through touch on palms - In order to convey facial expression, ASL is modified with touch to a specific part on the body

Major differences between ASL and English (3 each):

ASL: - Accesses language through visual sense - Uses space and movement of hands/face/mouth - Divides segments of signs into 2 units = holds & movements English: - Accesses language through hearing sense - Uses articulators of mouth and throat to make sound - Divides segments into 2 units = vowels and consonants

Functional Literacy

Ability to accomplish practical, everyday tasks involved in responding to print Ex: Filling out a job application or reading a newspaper (not books)

Cultural Literacy

Ability to bring the text knowledge derived from their culture, emcompassing values, customs, and information Ex: Read and understand elevated journalism and books

Critical Literacy

Ability to understand that literacy has social and political purposes Ex: Can write and analyze with depth

Why were Deaf clubs established?

After graduating from the Deaf school, Deaf people needed another place to congregate and share their culture

Who is the Father of Deaf Education in Africa?

Dr. Andrew Foster, first Black graduate of Gallaudet

Maintenance/Additive Bi/Bi Model

Educational goal of developing the native language, while also fostering acquisition and use of majority language - Aim = bilingualism and biliteracy

Transitional/Substractive Bi/Bi Model

Educational goal of shifting away from the native language, to exclusive use of majority language - Aim = monolingualism

Characteristics of Child Directed Signs

Emphasizes the suprasegmental patterns of the language - Wide angles of articulation, slow and repetitive signing, lots of facial expression - Produced in child's line of sight

What type of word order does ASL use, compared to English?

English = only SVO ASL = SVO or OSV

True or False, children learn language through imitating adults, explicit instruction, and behavioral conditioning.

FALSE! IT HAPPENS NATURALLY. Children learn language by building a system based on the input they receive, even if it is a small amount of input.

True or False, Fingerspelling is not part of ASL, it is the alphabet of the English letters.

False

True or False, because ASL is mostly pictorial, pantomime, and iconic. It is easy to learn.

False

True or False: Becoming bilingual detracts from development in another language.

False

True or False: People with right hemisphere damage cannot produce signs, or use sign language.

False! Even though the right hemisphere deals with some motor functions, they can still produce grammatically correct ASL

True or False, you need a shared language to communicate?

False! You can communicate with others without sharing a language

True or False, ASL does not have language variation in the form of dialects or ethnicity.

False, like all other languages, it does.

True or False, natural signed languages are based on spoken language.

False.

True or false, a child does not need mastery in BICS before starting school, to succeed in school.

False. A child needs a strong BICS foundation to be ready to learn and acquire academic skills

True or False, ASL was never the language of instruction in Deaf schools before the 20th century.

False. ASL was the language of instruction during the 19th century before the Milan Conference (1880).

True or False, all of the US and Canada use ASL.

False. All of the US and Canada EXCEPT Quebec use ASL.

True or False: the degree of English literacy is NOT linked to the degree of ASL fluency

False. Better ASL skills = Better English reading skills

True or False, bilingualiism slows down a child's language development because its difficult for the brain to distinguish between languages.

False. Bilingualism actually allows for more faster processing and more creative solutions to problems (dual outlets).

True or False, codes are languages.

False. Codes are NOT languages, they are not natural (man-made)

True or False: Signing did not exist in the Ancient world

False. Even without Deaf people, public speakers were accompanied by a visible gesture for people to understand what was going on from far away

True or False, once a sign is created, it will never change.

False. Some signs may start out being iconic, but change over time with repeated use. Ex: DOG. Used to fingerspell D.O.G., but with assimilation, it's changed

True of false, a Deaf child's family does not need to learn ASL or be moderately proficient in ASL for the child to succeed.

False. The child needs parents, siblings, peers, and others to develop language skills, so they can help the child develop their own.

True or False, a slight alteration of one parameter will NOT produce a different sign.

False. The difference in one parameter is responsible for the difference in meaning. ex: COMPUTER vs. CHURCH vs. CHOCOLATE

True or False, all language is accessible from birth.

False. Without ASL input, a deaf child will not learn ASL or English. They are not given input for ASL and cannot access the input for English.

True or False, sign language is universal.

False. You can communicate with each other, but they do not share the same language

Pidgin

First generation system used as a standard way of communicating among homesign systems when the pupils came together for the first few years

What decision was reached in the 1880 Milan Congress/Conference?

For ASL to be banned as the language of isntruction, and for Oralism to be the main/best way

What is the difference between a free morpheme and a bound morpheme?

Free morphemes can stand alone - Ex: "a"; A dog Bound morphemes must be attached to a word to carry meaning - Ex: -s, -ed, -ing

Who was the Deaf activitist that created the ASL preservation films?

George W. Veditz

What role did Alexander Graham Bell play in Deaf education?

He advocated for oralism (1870s), achieved through his presitige and financial contributions

What caused the decline of Deaf clubs?

High cost of living in big cities

Stages of acquisition for speech and sign:

- 1-3 mo: cooing/noises - 4 - 8 mo: babbling in English or ASL - 8 - 12 mo: Early phonological development - 12 -18 mo: First words emerge - 18 - 22 mo: Two word stage - 22 - 36 mo: Word modifications and sentence rules (syntax)

When did the Connecticut Asylum for the Education of the Deaf open? Who was the principal and head teacher?

- 1817 (now called American School for the Deaf) - Rev. THG was principal - Clerc was head teacher

Percentages of language exposure in Deaf pop:

- 5% native from birth - 95% non-native population

Bilingual approach for Deaf children means:

- ASL and English taught equally - Increasing ASL proficiency will lead to strong English literacy skills - Using ASL as student's primary language for classroom learning to comprehend English contents

3 main financial supports of first US Deaf school? What did they all have in common?

- Alice Cogswell's father, Dr. Cogswell - Sylvester Gilbert - Eliphalet Kimball All parents to deaf children

What are the 2 types of communicative knowledge a child must master?

- BICS (social comm.) - CALP (school comm.)

3 Main Deaf leaders in the 1800s

- Bebian - Massieu - Berthier All taught LSF at INJS

What does a late exposed signer miss out on?

- Facilitative effects of motherese - Leisure of focusing on phonological analysis before having to produce language - Crucial babbling practice

Advantages of Early sign exposure:

- Fully developed language base - Normal cognitive development - No input problems - Signing Deaf children become a language minority - On-grade performance and easy access to information - Easy access to an L2

1965 Bilingual Education Act consists of...

- Funding for programs to use minority languages in schools - Equal educational opportunities for children who speak a minority language - Child learns through their primary native language and about their cultural heritage

When language-like communication emerges without a model OR community, what does it look like?

- Gestural vocab - Iconicity - Some grammatical elements may appear

What makes a language natural? (4 reasons)

- Has been developed naturally in use - Learned from birth without formal instruction (just like speech) - Has a community of users - Is adapted to the modality in which it is produced

What are WFDs main roles?

- Improve status of national SLs - Better education for Deaf people - Improve access to info and service - Improve human rights for Deaf people in developing counties - Promote establish of Deaf orgs.

In order to read, a child must develop word recognition skills. What are the 2 main routes

- Indirect Phonological/Sound-based Route - Direct Lexical/Print-based Route

What caused the end of the Deaf utopia in Martha's Vineyard?

- Islanders started marrying off the island - Recessive gene for deafness was less likely to show

What are the universal characteristics ASL and English share?

- Linguistic structure is required - Types of errors are common across all languages - Spoken language and signed language acquisition proceeds along same time course.

Why do Deaf students lack the BGK needed to comprehend reading?

- Little/no access to language at home or in school - Ineffective school instruction - Excessive time devoted to Oralism/English grammar, rather than content acquisition

What were the 3 New England communities that had influences on the origins of ASL?

- Martha's Vineyard (Mass.) - Henniker (New Hamp.) - Sandy River Valley (Maine)

What are 3 major examples of SLs being created by Deaf communities?

- Martha's Vineyard SL - Nicaraguan SL - Bedouin SL

Why are hearing parents of Deaf children steered away from learning ASL?

- Medical professionals tend to orient towards speech, and the professionals are the ones who guide parent-infant programs - Learning a new language can seem daunting, especially when dealing with all of the other things that haven't experienced with a Deaf child

In 1815, Rev. THG traveled to Europe to meet who? and to learn what?

- Met Sicard - Wanted to learn how to teach the Deaf

What are non-manual signs in ASL?

- Mouth morphemes ("cha", "mm", etc.) - Eye gaze - Facial expression

What had influences on the origins of ASL?

- Natural sign language (LSF) brought by Laurent Clerc - Village sign languages of the 3 New England communities - Gestures and home signs

UN Declaration of Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious, or Linguistic Minorities

- Protects/fosters existence of ling. minorities - Affirms right of minorities to enjoy their cultures and use their language at a national level - States must take measures to ensure these people have proper opportunities to learn their minority language

What were the 2 resolutions passed in the Milan Congress in 1880?

- Recognition of superiority of speech over sign in teaching the deaf - Considered use of speech AND sign disadvantageous

When learning to read, Deaf people usually remember the written English words by:

- Remembering the words by their printed shapes - Fingerspelling the word or translating into ASL - Their sequence of vowels and consonants in English

Why does knowledge of ASL relate to English literacy?

- Sign language fluency increases amount of semantic concepts - High SL levels results in increased comprehension of instruction - Improvement in ASL grammar and discourse knowledge leads to high literacy skills

ASL Derivational Morphology

- Signs derived from verbs - Compounds formed - Fingerspelling taking on characteristics of a sign - Suffixes added to make verbs/adjectives into nouns (TEACH -> TEACHER)

Structural similarities among sign languages:

- Similar grammatical sign space - Iconicity, but language particular - All use the 5 parameters to form words - Have different historical families - Have cognates, but may look different

How does background knowledge affect reading?

- Students need BGK to be good readers - Knowing the rules of the language allows for knowledge of the world and life - Crucial to acquisition and development - Provides context for comprehension

Why might people be opposed to Bi/Bi Education?

- Supports Separatism - Immigrants have come to America and acquired English w/o instruction, so it's not necessary - Since the majority of Deaf children are late signers, it's too time consuming - Encourages children to be dependent on a language (ASL) that is not widely known

Benefits of Bi/Bi method

- They acheive language milestones on time - Promotes language and literacy development - Promotes cognitive control processes - Promotes metalinguisitc awareness - Fluency in one language supports fluency in another

2 Types of Bi/Bi Models

- Transitional/subtractive - Maintenance/additive

What do children have to figure out when learning a language?

- What forms are used (phonology, phonetics) - How to pair specific forms with meanings (vocabulary) - How to combine meaningful units into bigger units (morphology, syntax)

How did the pidgin become a creole?

- When it became the language of a community - When children started growing up with it as their first language

What are the 3 ways SLs come into being mature systems?

1) Acquired by children 2) Begin to appear in deaf children deprived of language input 3) Evolve in new communities of Deaf people

How does a sign language become a language?

1) Begins as homesign 2) Pidginization occurs when different homesigners come together to negotiate some systems 3) Creoleization occurs once the Pidgin has been taught and passed to the next generation, who then gives it more grammatical structure and rules

What are 5 common mistakes that are made in regards to ASL?

1) Disrespect of ASL as a language 2) Underestimation of importance of ASL in education of Deaf children 3) Underestimation of importance of ASL in Deaf people's lives 4) Think that ASL interferes with speech 5) Think that ASL will disappear because of CIs

To be assimilative, a community must have: (4 things)

1) Several generations of Deaf people to assure transmission of language 2) High incidence of Deaf people to motivate hearing people to sign 3) Geographic isolation to perpetuates Deaf pop. 4) Face to Face comm.

Depicting verbs are divided into 3 main types. They are:

1) Showing where something is in space 2) Showing what something looks like (size, shape, etc) 3) Showing movement or direction

4 main myths of ASL

1) it's pictorial, pantomime, and iconic 2) it is universal 3) it is primitive and lacks grammar 4) it's not a language because it doesn't have a written component

ASL phonology refers to the study of how signs are structured. Each sign is made up of 4-5 parameters. They are:

1. Handshape 2. Movement 3. Location 4. Palm Orientation 5. Non-manual Signs

What was the incidence of hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard?

1/155, in some places (Chilmark) even 1/25

BICS

Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills, used in social communication

After coming to live with Sicard in France, who learned the native SL (LSF) are advocated for it to be used in the education of the Deaf?

Bebian. He was hearing but lived in the Deaf school and learned LSF

In what year was it discovered that ASL was a true language?

Began studying in 1955, released research in 1960

Gestures

Body language used to communicate and label objects through mime/acting out

Why was Martha's Vineyard called assimilating?

Both Deaf and hearing people learned sign language, so Deaf people were "assimilated" into the larger hearing society

Who founded the first school ever for Deaf children? When was this?

Charles Michel de l'Epee in the 1760s

Motherese

Child directed speech/sign, with emphasized characteristics to make it "interesting" and actively involve babies - Facilitates infant development in social aspects of language

In terms of nature, how do children learn language?

Children have an innate ability to learn language (LAD). As long as the child receives good input, they will learn a language incredibly fast with few errors.

Nativization Hypothesis:

Children use their native ability to construct language and nativize the incomplete information they receive.

CALP

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency, used in school skills

Homesigns

Created by Deaf children to use with their hearing families who don't sign

Methodical French Sign

Created by Epee, basically "signed French" (like MCE) - French WO - French morphology

When and why was Total Communication (TC) created?

Created in the 1960s to supplement the fact that the Oralism method was not working in schools.

After opening the first Deaf school in the US, what language-event occurred due to Clerc's introduction of LSF

Creole was formed out of LSF and other's homesigns or signed languages

What 2 types of literacy are the primary goals of the education system?

Cultural Literacy Critical Literacy - If these are mastered, functional literacy is already mastered as well.

What did Kegl's research prove about SLs?

Deaf children must be exposed to SL ASAP, in order to be fully proficient in language

Who was Sophia Fowler Gallaudet?

Deaf wife of Rev. THG and matron of the Deaf school started by her son, Edward Miner Gallaudet

Direct Lexical/Print-based Route

Depends on whole word recognition, the reader must already know the word in its printed form

Why do oral-deaf children have an incomplete understanding of ASL?

They must attempt phonological development and other parts of language development at the same time. Without a complete grasp of phonological development, the child will never have complete proficiency. - Especially damaging in a Deaf classroom setting (can't keep up)

ASL sentence structure is know as...

Topic-Comment Structure (TC Structure)

True or False, For hearing children the Indirect (phonolog.) route is used for unfamiliar words, and the Direct (lexical) route is used for familiar words

True

True or False, children need nature AND nurture characteristics in order to learn language.

True

True or False, learning ASL helps with the acquisition of spoken language.

True

Who discovered that ASL was a true language, and argued that it was native and natural?

William Stokoe, Jr. & he worked at Gallaudet University

Do Deaf children use the Indirect Phonological route?

Yes. With a rich language environment and a strong foundation of ASL, the child is able to access English successfully and use the Indirect route.

Who was Alice Cogswell?

Young girl who was neighbors with Rev. THG, THG taught Alice to communicate though pictures and writing in dirt - inspired Rev. THG to learn how to teach the Deaf