Lexical‐Semantic Organization in Bilingually Developing Deaf Children With ASL‐Dominant Language Exposure: Evidence From a Repeated Meaning Association Task
This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Research Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme awarded to the first author. We would like to thank the team of deaf experts who helped adapt the vocabulary tasks to ASL; Mark Gobble, Mike Wynn, and Leah Geer for modeling all target signs; Lynn Hou and Leah Geer for reviewing the target items; and David Simmons for signing the ASL instructions. We are very much indebted to the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this work. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to all the children, parents, teachers, and others at the school, who took part in and supported this study.
Abstract
This study compared the lexical‐semantic organization skills of bilingually developing deaf children in American Sign Language (ASL) and English with those of a monolingual hearing group. A repeated meaning‐association paradigm was used to assess retrieval of semantic relations in deaf 6–10‐year‐olds exposed to ASL from birth by their deaf parents, with responses coded as syntagmatic or paradigmatic. Deaf children's responses in ASL and English were compared at the within‐group level, and their ASL was compared to the English responses of age‐matched monolingual hearing children. Finally, the two groups were compared on their semantic performance in English. Results showed similar patterns for deaf children's responses in ASL and English to those of hearing monolinguals, but subtle language differences were also revealed. These findings suggest that sign bilinguals’ language development in ASL and English is driven by similar underlying learning mechanisms rooted in the development of semantic frameworks.
Open Practices
This article has been awarded an Open Materials badge. Study materials are publicly accessible in the IRIS digital repository at http://www.iris‐database.org. The ASL/English Vocabulary Test is available at http://alsevt.com; access information can be obtained from the first author. Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science: https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki
