Language, Interaction and Acquisition - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2022

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.

This paper concerns the acquisition of the sign lexicon in L2 learners of Swedish Sign Language. Sampled data (conversation and narrative retelling) from a longitudinal learner corpus with 16 adult L2 signers was analyzed and compared with data from nine L1 signers. The use of three broad types of signs was analyzed: lexical signs, partly-lexical signs (i.e. depicting signs) and non-lexical signs. The results revealed some differences between L1 and L2 signers, especially with regard to depicting signs. The number of depicting signs used by L2 learners increased over time, approaching the target language use. Qualitatively, we observed differences between L1 and L2 signers in their use of depicting signs, related to handshape choice and sign constructions. We discuss these findings in light of previous research linked to L2 vocabulary as well as the role of gestural knowledge in sign L2 acquisition.

SLA research is characterised by a striking homogeneity in the linguistic, social and geographical data we as a field draw on. Such empirical homogeneity is a potential threat to the validity and scope of our models and theories. This paper focuses on a particular gap in our knowledge, namely the SLA of sign languages. It outlines an argument as to why the SLA of sign matters to general SLA research in terms of the empirical representativity, generalisability, and validity of the conclusions in the field. It exemplifies three domains where the study of language acquisition across modalities could shed important light on theoretical issues in mainstream SLA/bilingualism research (e.g. learner varieties, explicit-implicit learning, and crosslinguistic influence), and highlight some of the methodological challenges involved in such work.