Art Un ticle I.1 ited Sta In the ates News - Woodring College of ...

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Conclusion: Are Signed Languages Real Languages?Results from studies of early language acquisition provide especially strong evidencerelevant to assessing whether signed languages are real languages. Here we see clearly thatthe prevailing assumption about the biological foundations of human language--indeed, thevery assumption upon which notions of the alleged biological superiority of speech over signrests--is not supported when the relevant studies are conducted. Specifically, no evidence wasfound that the newborn brain is neurologically set exclusively for speech in early languageontogeny. No evidence was found that speech is biologically more "special," more"privileged," or "higher" in status than sign in early language ontogeny. Instead, the key,persistent research finding to emerge is this: The biological mechanisms in the brain thatunderlie early human language acquisition do not appear to differentiate between spokenversus signed language input. Both types of input appear to be processed equally in the brain.This provides powerful evidence that signed and spoken languages occupy identical and,crucially, equal biological status in the human brain. In summary, I have outlined three linesof scientific research on the status of natural signed languages relative to spoken languages,including Linguistic, Sociolinguistic, and Biological research. All three types of researchprovide powerful converging evidence that natural signed languages are "real languages,"demonstrating all of the features characteristic of language in our species. Thus, there is noscientific reason to exclude ASL or LSQ, or any other natural signed language, from thefamily of languages used by human beings. That signed languages are real languages cannow be considered to be an unequivocal scientific fact.AcknowledgementsI thank Kevin Dunbar, Jamie MacDougall and the researchers (students and staff) whoassisted in the studies discussed within, and, crucially, the Deaf and hearing families who solovingly gave their time and support to these studies. I also thank the following for fundingthis research: Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada, the MacDonnell-PewCentre Grant in Cognitive Neuroscience, and the McGill-IBM Cooperative Project.Footnotes1 Most all of the claims regarding the earlier onset of first signs over first words stem fromone group of researchers (e.g., Bonvillian, Orlansky, Novack, & Folven, 1983; Folven &Bonvillian, 1991). Recently, a second group of researchers (Meier & Newport, 1991) hasbased their theoretical arguments in support of a possible "sign advantage" largely onBonvillian et al's claims. The subjects in Bonvillian et al.'s studies are reported to haveproduced their "first sign" at a mean age of 8.2 months (a date that differs from hearingchildren’s' first words, which occurs at approximately 11 months). However, in their studies,the infants' "first signs" were not required to be used in a meaningful or referential way.Instead, infant manual productions containing "recognizable adult phonetic forms" withoutany "referential" content, were attributed "sign" status (=lexical or word status). What theywere actually measuring, however, is clear from the spoken language acquisition literatureand from my own work: In spoken language, we see that hearing infants around ages 7-10months begin production of "syllabic babbling," whereupon they produce vocal productionscontaining recognizable adult phonetic forms without any referential content. Similarly, in© 2008 Dr. Catherine CollierAll Rights Reserved12
signed language, we see that sign-exposed infants around ages 7-10 months also beginproduction of "syllabic babbling," albeit on their hands (Petitto & Marentette, 1991a). Thus,it would appear that Bonvillian et al., have mislabeled genuine instances of manual babblingin sign-exposed infants as being "first signs." Recall that their date for the age of first signs is8.2 months--which is smack in the middle of infants' manual (and/or vocal) babbling stage(see also Petitto, 1988, for a discussion of other methodological considerations associatedwith this research, including the over attribution of linguistic sign status to these infants nonlinguisticcommunicative gestures).© 2008 Dr. Catherine CollierAll Rights Reserved13
Page 2 and 3: "Those who arrive by age 12 or 13 m
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Page 16 and 17: A few weeks earlier, I had called F
Page 18 and 19: “We struggled even getting to the
Page 20 and 21: herself by strapping a cassette rec
Page 22 and 23: In 1998, after nine years as the ch
Page 24 and 25: momentary burst of excitement that
Page 26 and 27: can shape core grammar. Because the
Page 28 and 29: The authors compared animal and hum
Page 30 and 31: monkey moved. He followed it with h
Page 32 and 33: delight, fear, laughter, and surpri
Page 34 and 35: Piipaío in a hut: Pirahã huts typ
Page 36 and 37: LEP students, and equitable organiz
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Page 43 and 44: portfolio work was scanned and stor
Page 45 and 46: experiences of many groups of stude
Page 47 and 48: While not disagreeing that interpre
Page 49 and 50: sound educational practice, however
Page 51 and 52: arises from the efforts to abstract
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Page 55 and 56: males who can serve as positive rol
Page 57 and 58: Understanding another culture is a
Page 59 and 60: Pets and AnimalsWhich animals are v
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Asking personal questions of a pers
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Using Cross Cultural Communication
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Why Do Nonstandard English-Speaking
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Before beginning to teach standard
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• Negative attitudes toward low p
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New standardized tests and assessme
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Each of the behaviors listed above
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Article II.3 Hard Work Hypothesis:
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each point higher in SES, students
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This case does not provide strong s
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Article II.4 Language Acquisition a
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1992, p. XI). These researchers, wh
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comprehend a word within a specific
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more to the truthfulness of the chi
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This idea of “semilingualism” c
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Article III.1 A Brief Description o
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take different lengths of time to c
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example, should involve the same co
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As with all stages of BICS acquisit
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Assessment techniques at stage 3 ca
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different. Therefore, the social di
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integrative motivation. Basically,
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(Ellis, 1985; Hakuta, 1986). Howeve
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that sociocultural processes have o
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Article III.3 How Children Acquire
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phonetic units (unique to signed la
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Article III.4 Toward a Sociocultura
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emember is that the fundamental goa
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The best practices models can be th
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By focusing on the dialectic betwee
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intergenerational wisdom shared by
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Daily Realities RecappedThe above v
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traditions. At a time in our histor
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We will now look at two examples of
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Speakers communicate fluently, main
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question the effects of such attitu
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Article IV.3 Culture Change: Effect
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and psychological characteristics o
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Contraryto what wewere expecting, t
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Article V.1 Assessment in ESL & Bil
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vocabulary does the student lack?Is
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whether they are LEP and to provide
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Fourth, ESL and bilingual program s
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competent reader/writer. All versio
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Table 1Comparison of Recent Accultu
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unilinear model, which measures the
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an English-only instructional progr
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Article V.3 Assessment of English L
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8. Change answers only for a very g
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Riles, 1979; Jose P. v Ambac, 1983)
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proficiency is often underestimated
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Finally, when second language reade
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for their decisions, noting issues
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As mentioned above, when the transi
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ather than generic adjectives and t
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their imagined points of view. Ther
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English texts and demonstrate progr
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using inter-district teams). In the
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