Introduction to Psycholinguistics CSL 311

Dr. Gad Elbeheri 22nd February 2nd June 2010

Lecture Three
February 3rd March 2010

Revision: Lecture 1

How children learn language:

Development of Speech Production.
Speech Production:
Vocalization Babbling Advanced Stages of Babbling (production of words & First words). Babbling vs. Speech Acquisition of Consonants vs. Vowels Generalization of first words. Holophrastic words. Telegraphic Speech. Low incidence of function words. Acquisition of nouns, verbs and adjectives first. Word order of first language. Morpheme Acquisition (Function words & inflections). Rule acquisition within 5 years of life (negation, questions, passives and relative clauses).

Revision: Lecture 2

How children learn language:

Development of Speech Comprehension.
At pre-natal stage (fetuses and speech input), Speech comprehension occurs without speech production (3 case studies to support this), Speech comprehension develops in advance of speech production, Both systems of speech comprehension and speech production do not develop separately, Thought precedes language, Parentese and Baby Talk, Imitation, rule learning and correction, Memory in language learning, Logic in language learning.

The Deaf & Language

Sign

language

A sign language is a true language because the language system allows a signer to comprehend and produce large number of grammatical sentences in signs. A signing person has a true language if that person can communicate by sign whatever can be communicated by speech. American Sign Language is different from British Sign Language and is also different from French Sign Language. Even within the same country, sign languages differ from regions to regions (Paris vs. Lyon).

The Deaf & Language

Sign

language

There is no universal sign language. Gestures are useful, but they are only collections of signs that are limited in scope and do not form a true language. Gestures are often similar but rarely universal.

The Deaf & Language

Speech-based sign language

Two types of sign language: (1) Speech based sign language, and (2) independent of ordinary language. Speech-based sign language represents spoken words. Speech-based sign language either represent morphemes (meaning units) or spelling (orthographies). American & British Sign Language are not speech based sign language. These are called independent sign language. Finger spelling (letter by letter) is a system of signing where words are represented by spelling them out letter by letter.

The Deaf & Language

Independent Sign Language

Three basic components of Independent Sign Language (ISL) are:

Hand configuration (shape the hand forms), Place of articulation (where in space the hand is formed), Movement (how the hand moves). By varying features of place, configuration and movement, ISL morphological variations and changes in aspect. Brief background of American Sign Language.

The Deaf & Language

The Oral Approach and Total Communication

The Oral Approach refers to people who want to teach speech to hearing-impaired people so that they can produce and comprehend speech in order to communicate with the hearing community. Oral Approach focuses on the teaching of speech production, then speech comprehension. They train children from 2/3 years of age in developing their skills in articulating speech sounds. Many children respond to this method, but mainly those with mild hearing loss. Severely hearing impaired children remain poorly according to this method.

The Deaf & Language

Research shows that the less people can hear, the less they will be able to produce and comprehend speech. Few children who are learn with a severe hearing loss (over 75/80 decibels in their better ear) acquire any significant degree of speech. Even those with a lesser hearing loss often do not acquire sufficiently clear pronunciation to be understood by ordinary hearing persons. In order to produce speech sounds, one first must hear the sounds that someone else is making. One must have a target. Without having the target sounds, one would have no basis for comparative judgment.

The Deaf & Language

Speech teachers of the deaf are trained to assist the deaf person in articulating speech sounds. However, the task is very difficult for the deaf and the severely impaired. Many hearing impaired persons were not only unable to communicate with the hearing community, but were also unable to communicate with the hearing-impaired community. The above situation convinced many educators of the deaf to include sign language in their curriculum along with speech training. Such programmes are know as Total Communication started in 1970s. While such approach is adopted in many countries, there are some resistance to the idea of teaching a sign

The Deaf & Language

Sign language vs. Oral Approach debate Oral Approach supporters:
Sign language is not a language, Learning and use of sign language negatively affects the acquisition of speech, Without speech production, there will be defective thinking. The teaching of reading and written language is also not acceptable for the same reasons. The above points of views have no empirical observation or psycholinguistic theory and are false. Knowledge of ASL and reading facilitates acquisition of speech. Deaf people without speech are as highly intelligent as

The Deaf & Language

Alexander Graham Bell (Advocate of Oral Approach) In 1880 (in Milan) and in 1886 (in America) at two the most well known conferences on the teaching of the deaf that Graham Bell presented the view that only speech should be taught to deaf regardless of their degree of hearing loss. Bell was a teacher of the deaf in London before moving to American (to Boston) in 1870. His father was also a teacher of the deaf and his mother was deaf. His father invented Visible Speech which is a written phonetic alphabet. His wife was also deaf. Bell invented the telephone in 1875 and he was very successful. For the next 100 years, sign language restriction was on place at educational schools for the deaf.

The Deaf & Language

Bell vs. Edward Gallaudet

Thomas Gallaudet (the inventor of ADL) had a son, Edward, who opposed the views of Bell. Edward was the head of the Gallaudet American Asylum. Like Bell, Edward had a deaf mother, but hearing fathers who were devoted for the education of deaf people. Both Bell and Edward respected each other and their opposing views were respectable. Edward later proposed the Combined Method in which both speech and sign are both taught.