Fluent Signers Research Articles

A Preliminary Study on Interpreting for Emergent Signers

Sign language interpreters work with a variety of consumer populations throughout their careers. One such population, referred to as emergent signers , consists of consumers who are in the process of learning American Sign Language, and who rely on interpreters during their language acquisition period. A gap in the research is revealed when considering the interaction between this growing population and the interpreting field. The present study thus attempts to provide a preliminary examination of the topic by reporting on the findings of a survey conducted with interpreters affiliated with Gallaudet Interpreting Service at Gallaudet University. Results show that interpreters are working on a regular basis with this population that the work is different from traditional interpreting work with fluent signers, and that interpreters have differing opinions on how the work should be approached. Implications for future areas of study and the overwhelming need for research on this subject are also discussed.

Language by mouth and by hand.

Language by mouth and by hand.

Reproducing American Sign Language sentences: cognitive scaffolding in working memory.

The American Sign Language Sentence Reproduction Test (ASL-SRT) requires the precise reproduction of a series of ASL sentences increasing in complexity and length. Error analyses of such tasks provides insight into working memory and scaffolding processes. Data was collected from three groups expected to differ in fluency: deaf children, deaf adults and hearing adults, all users of ASL. Quantitative (correct/incorrect recall) and qualitative error analyses were performed. Percent correct on the reproduction task supports its sensitivity to fluency as test performance clearly differed across the three groups studied. A linguistic analysis of errors further documented differing strategies and bias across groups. Subjects' recall projected the affordance and constraints of deep linguistic representations to differing degrees, with subjects resorting to alternate processing strategies when they failed to recall the sentence correctly. A qualitative error analysis allows us to capture generalizations about the relationship between error pattern and the cognitive scaffolding, which governs the sentence reproduction process. Highly fluent signers and less-fluent signers share common chokepoints on particular words in sentences. However, they diverge in heuristic strategy. Fluent signers, when they make an error, tend to preserve semantic details while altering morpho-syntactic domains. They produce syntactically correct sentences with equivalent meaning to the to-be-reproduced one, but these are not verbatim reproductions of the original sentence. In contrast, less-fluent signers tend to use a more linear strategy, preserving lexical status and word ordering while omitting local inflections, and occasionally resorting to visuo-motoric imitation. Thus, whereas fluent signers readily use top-down scaffolding in their working memory, less fluent signers fail to do so. Implications for current models of working memory across spoken and signed modalities are considered.

On the linguistic effects of articulatory ease, with a focus on sign languages

Abstract: Spoken language has a well-known drive for ease of articulation, which Kirchner (1998, 2004) analyzes as reduction of the total magnitude of all biomechanical forces involved. We extend Kirchner’s insights from vocal articulation to manual articulation, with a focus on joint usage, and we discuss ways that articulatory ease might be realized in sign languages. In particular, moving more joints and/or joints more proximal to the torso results in greater mass being moved, and thus more articulatory force being expended, than moving fewer joints or moving more distal joints. We predict that in casual conversation, where articulatory ease is prized, moving fewer joints should be favored over moving more, and moving distal joints should be favored over moving proximal joints. We report on the results of our study of the casual signing of fluent signers of American Sign Language, which confirm our predictions: in comparison to citation forms of signs, the casual variants produced by the signers in our experiment exhibit an overall decrease in average joint usage, as well as a general preference for more distal articulation than is used in citation form. We conclude that all language, regardless of modality, is shaped by a fundamental drive for ease of articulation. Our work advances a cross-modality approach for considering ease of articulation, develops a potentially important vocabulary for describing variations in signs, and demonstrates that American Sign Language exhibits variation that can be accounted for in terms of ease of articulation. We further suggest that the linguistic drive for ease of articulation is part of a broader tendency for the human body to reduce biomechanical effort in all physical activities.

Emerging Evidence for Instructional Practice

Current initiatives in education, such as No Child Left Behind and the National Common Core Standards movement, call for the use of evidence-based practices, or those instructional practices that are supported by documentation of their effectiveness related to student learning outcomes, including students with special needs. While hearing loss is a low-incidence disability, the majority of students who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) receive educational services in their local schools, where educators frequently lack proficient sign language skills. One way to provide fluent sign language models is through the use of repeated viewings of stories presented in sign language. We present an overview of the current evidence base for the use of repeated viewings of sign language materials with students who are D/HH. In addition, we detail how sign language materials are created by a collaborative team at a school for the deaf.

Turn-taking in Brazilian Sign Language

This study investigates the interactional skills of fluent sign language users, with special attention to contexts of overlapping talk. Data from semi-spontaneous conversations were analyzed from the video record, transcribed in ELAN, with tiers for non-manual signals and with a ‘gesture phase’ analysis of manual signs. Results show that signers closely coordinate their contributions in accordance with the sequential implicativeness of gesture phases. They deploy conventional resources similar to those described for spoken languages to resolve overlap quickly and efficiently. We show that signers, like speakers of oral languages, orient to ‘one party talks at a time’, and that the management of talk-in-interaction is achieved within a tightly organized system which includes resources traditionally associated with the ‘linguistic’, ‘paralinguistic/prosodic’, and ‘kinetic/gestural’ domains, thus possibly contributing to investigations of explicitly ad hoc and multimodal forms of communication and eventually to a reevaluation of what might legitimately be termed ‘talk’.

A Look at the Other 90 Per Cent: Investigating British Sign Language Vocabulary Knowledge in Deaf Children from Different Language Learning Backgrounds

In this study we present new data on deaf children's receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge in British Sign Language (BSL) from a sample consisting of children with deaf parents, children with hearing parents, and children with additional needs. Their performance on three BSL vocabulary tasks was compared with (previously reported findings from) a sample of deaf fluent signers. We use these data to assess the effects of some key demographic/child variables on deaf signing children's vocabulary and discuss findings in the relation to the meaning of ‘normative’ data and samples for this heterogeneous population. Findings show no effect of the presence of additional disabilities on participants' scores for any of the three tasks. As expected, chronological age is the most significant factor in performance on all vocabulary tasks while the number of deaf relatives only becomes statistically significant for the form recall task. This study contributes to the field of sign language assessment by seeking to identify key variables in heterogeneity and how these variables affect signed vocabulary acquisition with the long-term objective of informing intervention.

A classification of compounds in American Sign Language: an evaluation of the Bisetto and Scalise framework

Cross-linguistic comparisons of compounds are difficult because of the varied criteria and terms used by different linguists (Scalise and Bisetto 2009). To address this problem, Scalise and Bisetto proposed a universal three-level classification of compound types. Although several researchers have shown that American Sign Language (ASL) has compound signs, a classification of compound types in ASL has not been completed. All of the potential compounds in an ASL dictionary (Costello 1994) were identified, then verified as compounds with the help of a fluent deaf signer by applying standard tests for composition. These compounds were then classified using the Scalise and Bisetto classification. We found that Scalise and Bisetto’s three-level hierarchical classification successfully captured cross-category relationships among subtypes of compounds but fails to predict the existence of one type of compound attested in ASL. In our revised classification, a consistent set of criteria is used at each level, resulting in a classification that is both conceptually simpler and empirically more adequate. The second tier category for hierarchical compounds are bifurcated into the categories expressed predicate and unexpressed predicate, according to whether each predicate in a compound’s semantic structure is expressed by one of the overt constituents. The revision has the further advantage of allowing us to avoid any reference to word class/grammatical category in applying our taxonomy, a goal that we show to be desirable on both theoretical and empirical grounds.

Preferences for communication in clinic from deaf people: a cross‐sectional study

To explore the preferences of deaf people for communication in a hospital consultation. Design--cross-sectional survey, using a structured, postal questionnaire. Setting--survey of readers of two journals for deaf and hard of hearing people. Participants--999 self-selected individuals with hearing loss in the UK, including those who use sign language and those who use speech. Main outcome measures--preferred mode of communication. A total of 11% of participants preferred to use sign language within everyday life, 70% used speech and 17% used a mixture of sign and speech. Within a clinic setting, 50% of the sign language users preferred to have a consultation via a sign language interpreter and 43% indicated they would prefer to only have a consultation directly with a signing health professional; 7% would accept a consultation in speech as long as there was good deaf awareness from the health professional, indicated by a knowledge of lip-reading/speech-reading. Of the deaf speech users, 98% preferred to have a consultation in speech and of this group 71% indicated that they would only accept this if the health professional had good deaf awareness. Among the participants who used a mixture of sign language and speech, only 5% said they could cope with a consultation in speech with no deaf awareness whereas 46% were accepting of a spoken consultation as long as it was provided with good deaf awareness; 30% preferred to use an interpreter and 14% preferred to have a consultation directly with a signing health professional. The hospital communication preferences for most people with deafness could be met by increasing deaf awareness training for health professionals, a greater provision of specialized sign language interpreters and of health professionals who can use fluent sign language directly with clients in areas where contact with deaf people is frequent.

Eye Gaze During Comprehension of American Sign Language by Native and Beginning Signers

An eye-tracking experiment investigated where deaf native signers (N = 9) and hearing beginning signers (N = 10) look while comprehending a short narrative and a spatial description in American Sign Language produced live by a fluent signer. Both groups fixated primarily on the signer's face (more than 80% of the time) but differed with respect to fixation location. Beginning signers fixated on or near the signer's mouth, perhaps to better perceive English mouthing, whereas native signers tended to fixate on or near the eyes. Beginning signers shifted gaze away from the signer's face more frequently than native signers, but the pattern of gaze shifts was similar for both groups. When a shift in gaze occurred, the sign narrator was almost always looking at his or her hands and was most often producing a classifier construction. We conclude that joint visual attention and attention to mouthing (for beginning signers), rather than linguistic complexity or processing load, affect gaze fixation patterns during sign language comprehension.

Working memory for language is not special: Evidence for an articulatory loop for novel stimuli

The "articulatory loop" for rehearsal of verbal materials in working memory has been shown not to be a unique hard-wired structure associated with spoken language. Specifically, a parallel rehearsal process for sign language occurs in fluent signers. Here we show that the same rehearsal process can occur for unfamiliar, nonmeaningful body movements. We conclude that working memory maintenance does not rely on a dedicated architecture, but instead involves the strategic recruitment of resources as needed for the task demands.

Narrating Deaf Lives: "Is It True?" Fiction and Autobiography

WHENEVER I VISIT (or teach) a class that has read my story A Nice Romantic Dinner from the Deaf Way II Anthology, it never fails that students ask whether the story is true-their way of asking whether it is autobiographical. That is not an easy question to answer because it depends on how one defines If true means that everything in the story happened, then no, it is not true. However, if it means that the story reflects and draws on my experiences, then it is true. A Nice Romantic Dinner centers around a fight that the two main characters, Sara and Brad, have over dinner at a restaurant on their seventh wedding anniversary. The central conflict in the story arises because Sara, who is deaf, wants Brad to sign; Brad, who is hearing, does not want to. Sara tries to turn the dinner into a lesson in signing, but Brad is unenthusiastic and quickly ends the lesson. This is what then happens: Instead of repeating what she had signed, Brad said, That's enough for now. My eyes are tired, and it is dark in here. Let's just talk and eat. He picked up his beer and closed his eyes while he drank several swallows, giving Sara no chance to argue with him. Bastard! Sara signed (but did not voice). Brad missed it, of course, since his eyes were closed. Not that it would matter, anyway; Sara doubted Brad knew that particular sign. Sara was furious. Brad had the nerve to complain that it was too dark in the restaurant to pay attention to her sign, and he wanted her to pay attention to his lips, which are infinitely harder to understand? She was struggling not to cry, not wanting to make a scene in public. (193-94) That scene-part of the climax of the story-did not happen in my actual relationship with my hearing (now ex) husband, so in that sense, it is fiction. However, that scene (and the rest of the story) is true-and autobiographical-in that it is built from pieces of my experience. I did have many spats with my ex over the signing issue-some even in restaurants, and those many experiences gave me material for the scene. For another example of how autobiography comes to play in the story, note that Sara felt unable to argue with Brad when he closed his eyes. This is not a logical behavior because Sara can speak, and of course hearing people do not need to see a speaker to hear. That is Sara acting as I would. If I am talking to a hearing person (using my voice) and that person looks away, I feel as if they cannot hear me, so I stop talking until I can establish eye contact again. This is an unconscious behavior, and when I notice what I am doing, I force myself to start talking again. Likewise, Sara's signing of bastard is something I identify with. Part of me wishes I would react this way myself in similar situations. I do not, but in writing Sara this way I get my chance. Writing fiction is an opportunity to create a new self and to try on new identities. This ability to play with identity is a primary reason I want to write fiction. I have to work at distancing myself. It took me several years to complete the story. I got the idea for it when my marriage was falling apart, and I actually wrote parts of what eventually became the story then. However, the experience was too close, and the emotions involved were too raw at the time, so I put the story away for a few years. When I felt ready to work on the story again, I had established enough distance. I was able to give the characters names and see them as characters in a story instead of visualizing only my ex and myself. I could then have the characters do and say things that made for a better story. I find myself attracted to writing about the borderland that exists wherever there are deaf/hearing relationships. This is a rich source of stories because of the inherent conflict built into such relationships-even when the hearing person is a fluent signer. Those are the stories I want to tell because, even though the Deaf community is where I feel at home, I neither can nor want to escape from my second home in the hearing community, which is part of me. …

Does Deafness Lead to Enhancement of Visual Spatial Cognition in Children?: Negative Evidence from Deaf Nonsigners

This study investigated whether deafness contributes to enhancement of visual spatial cognition independent of knowledge of a sign language. Congenitally deaf school children in India who were born to hearing parents and were not exposed to any sign language, and matched hearing controls, were given a test of digit span and five tests that measured visual spatial skills. The deaf group showed shorter digit span than the hearing group, consistent with previous studies. Deaf and hearing children did not differ in their performance on the visual spatial skills test, suggesting that deafness per se may not be a sufficient factor for enhancement of visual spatial cognition. Early exposure to a sign language and fluent sign skills may be the critical factors that lead to differential development of visual spatial skills in deaf people.

Hearing Offspring as Visual Language Mediators in Deaf-Parented Families

Visual language mediation by hearing offspring was studied in deaf-parented families as part of a larger program of cross-sectional descriptive research into aspects of deaf parents’ child rearing performance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 profoundly deaf adults and the oldest hearing school-aged offspring in the home. All parents were fluent signers, deaf from early childhood. Interview videotapes were transcribed and spontaneous utterances categorized by theme. Results indicated that visual language mediation by the oldest hearing child in the home was welcomed and encouraged in all but one family. Frequency of language mediation tasks increased with age and signing competence of offspring. Language–mediation situations were considered in terms of participants, content, and mediation strategy. Parent and child views of the “interpreter” role raised issues related to offspring’s language–mediation responsibilities and perceived parental dependence. Implications for professionals serving deaf–parented families are offered. Elements of the language–mediation event are schematized to facilitate future causal–comparative study.

Semantic and formational clustering in deaf and hearing subjects' free recall of signs.

To investigate whether formational properties of sign language are used spontaneously to organize long-term memory, 16 deaf college students were given a free recall task with items that could be categorized either by shared semantic category or by shared sign language hand shape. Both presentation and response modes (signed or written) were varied between subjects. Analyses revealed no effects of mode on trials to criterion or number of items recalled at 1 week. The clustering that occurred was exclusively semantic, with significantly higher clustering scores during acquisition trials in subjects required to sign their responses. In Experiment 2, formational clustering was encouraged by including formational similarity as the only experimenter-defined basis of categorization, by increasing formational similarity within categories, and by testing only subjects with high signing skills. Input and output modes were again varied between subjects. Subjects were deaf college students with deaf parents (n = 10) or hearing parents (n = 16), and hearing adults with deaf parents (n = 8). Again, spontaneous clustering by formational similarity was extremely low. In only one case— deaf subjects with hearing parents given signed input—did formational clustering increase significantly across the eight acquisition trials. After the categorical nature of the list was explained to subjects at a 1-week retention session, all groups clustered output by formational categories. Apparently, fluent signers do have knowledge of the formational structure of signs, but do not spontaneously use this knowledge as a basis of mnemonic organization in long-term memory.