Morford Jill P, Carlson Martina L
Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico.
Lang Learn Dev. 2011 Jan 1;7(2):149-168. doi: 10.1080/15475441.2011.543393.
Past research has established that delayed first language exposure is associated with comprehension difficulties in non-native signers of American Sign Language (ASL) relative to native signers. The goal of the current study was to investigate potential explanations of this disparity: do non-native signers have difficulty with all aspects of comprehension, or are their comprehension difficulties restricted to some aspects of processing? We compared the performance of deaf non-native, hearing L2, and deaf native signers on a handshape and location monitoring and a sign recognition task. The results indicate that deaf non-native signers are as rapid and accurate on the monitoring task as native signers, with differences in the pattern of relative performance across handshape and location parameters. By contrast, non-native signers differ significantly from native signers during sign recognition. Hearing L2 signers, who performed almost as well as the two groups of deaf signers on the monitoring task, resembled the deaf native signers more than the deaf non-native signers on the sign recognition task. The combined results indicate that delayed exposure to a signed language leads to an overreliance on handshape during sign recognition.
过去的研究已经证实，相对于以美国手语（ASL）为母语的手语使用者，首次接触第一语言的时间较晚与非母语的美国手语使用者在理解方面存在困难有关。本研究的目的是探究这种差异的潜在原因：非母语手语使用者在理解的各个方面都有困难，还是他们的理解困难仅限于某些处理方面？我们比较了失聪的非母语手语使用者、听力正常的第二语言学习者和失聪的母语手语使用者在手部形状和位置监测以及手语识别任务中的表现。结果表明，失聪的非母语手语使用者在监测任务中的速度和准确性与母语手语使用者相当，只是在手部形状和位置参数的相对表现模式上存在差异。相比之下，非母语手语使用者在手语识别过程中与母语手语使用者有显著差异。听力正常的第二语言学习者在监测任务中的表现几乎与两组失聪的手语使用者一样好，在手语识别任务中，他们与失聪的母语手语使用者的相似程度超过了失聪的非母语手语使用者。综合结果表明，接触手语的时间延迟会导致在手语识别过程中过度依赖手部形状。
