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Article published In: Second Language Acquisition of Sign Languages: Acquisition d'une langue des signes comme langue seconde
Edited by Krister Schönström and Chloë Marshall
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 13:2] 2022
► pp. 175–198

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Measuring language dominance in bilinguals with two sign languages

 | The University of Texas at Austin
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

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This article was made Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license through payment of an APC by or on behalf of the author.

Published online: 23 February 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.22004.lin
Abstract
This study examines whether a multi-faceted construct of language dominance developed for spoken languages applies to signed language bilinguals. Sign languages have been described as highly iconic and relatively similar to each other compared to spoken languages. Attaining fluency in the signed modality might well require considerably less effort, and balanced bilingualism may be more prevalent in the signed modality. Language dominance constructs, as currently understood, might differ in the spoken and signed modality. Forty bilinguals with two sign languages responded to a language dominance questionnaire developed for spoken languages and performed a phonological fluency (sign generation) task. Language dominance levels were found to vary in the signed modality. The correlation between reported dominance levels and the number of signs generated in each sign language was significant, suggesting that the construct of language dominance tested is robust and independent of modality.
Résumé
Cette étude vise à déterminer si un modèle complexe de dominance linguistique développée pour les langues parlées, peut s’appliquer chez les bilingues dans les langues signées. Les langues des signes ont été décrites comme très iconiques et relativement similaires entre elles par rapport aux langues parlées. Atteindre un bon niveau de langue dans la modalité signée pourrait alors demander beaucoup moins d’efforts, et le bilinguisme équilibré pourrait être plus fréquent dans la modalité signée (que dans la modalité parlée). Les concepts de dominance linguistique, tels qu’ils sont utilisés actuellement, pourraient donc être différents selon la modalité envisagée (parlée vs. signée). Quarante bilingues connaissant deux langues des signes ont rempli un questionnaire sur la dominance linguistique conçu pour les langues parlées et ont accompli une tâche de fluence phonologique (avec génération de signes). Les résultats indiquent une variation des niveaux de dominance linguistique dans la modalité signée. La corrélation entre le niveau de dominance déclaré et le nombre de signes générés dans chaque langue des signes est significative, ce qui suggère que le modèle de dominance linguistique testé est robuste et indépendant de la modalité.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 1.1The prospects of becoming equally fluent in two sign languages
  • 1.2A multi-faceted construct of language dominance in spoken languages
  • 1.3Phonological fluency tasks in the signed modality
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participant criteria and recruitment
    • 2.2Data collection
      • 2.2.1Language dominance questionnaire in ASL
      • 2.2.2Phonological fluency task
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Statistical models
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Results from the ASL-BLP survey
    • 3.2Correlations between the phonological fluency task and the ASL-BLP
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
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Pichler, Deborah Chen & Elena Koulidobrova
2023. The Role of Modality in L2 Learning: The Importance of Learners Acquiring a Second Sign Language (M2L2 and M1L2 Learners). Language Learning 73:S1 ► pp. 197 ff. DOI logo

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