Acquisition of a signed phonological system by hearing adults: the role of sign structure and iconicity

Sign language research is now a well-consolidated field of study that has produced extensive inter-disciplinary studies in linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. However, an area that has been widely neglected is the acquisition of a sign language as a second language (L2). To date, our understanding of how adults with a spoken first language (L1) go on to learn a signed L2 is limited. This shortcoming is striking given the pressing need for proficient L2 signers to narrow the gap between the hearing and the deaf community. The dramatic shortage of professional sign language interpreters has serious repercussions on how deaf signers communicate in crucial everyday situations. In the UK, for instance, the needs of 25,000 users of British Sign Language (BSL) are covered by only 800 registered interpreters (Murray 2013). This critical situation also affects the deaf children in the UK. Most of them attend mainstream schools in which Communication Support Workers with insufficient signing skills function both as linguistic models and sign language interpreters. Currently, there are efforts to create assessment tools of sign languages, but often they are adaptations of materials for spoken languages. It is crucial for the well-being of the deaf community to understand the cognitive mechanisms of sign L2 acquisition to develop efficient teaching methods and research based teaching materials. In an effort to uncover some of the complexities of L2 acquisition across-modalities, this dissertation investigates the development of a manual phonological system by hearing adults. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction on how sign structure and iconicity may influence acquisition of signed phonology. First, it provides an overview of the linguistics of sign phonology and explains that, in addition to the intrinsic complexity of each phonological parameter (handshape, location, movement, and orientation), sign structure may predict success in developing novel phonological categories. The chapter then describes that the clear direct mappings between a linguistic structure and its referent (iconicity) is a prevalent feature of all sign languages and that iconic signs may assume many forms. This chapter also points out that some of the co-speech gestures used by hearing individuals may also adopt an iconic form and that speakers' awareness of iconic gestures during communicative interactions may influence their perception of iconic signs. After drawing similarities and differences between signs and gestures, Chapter 1 gives an overview of the available literature on how sign structure and iconicity influences sign language acquisition in L1 and …