XClose

UCL Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre

Home
Menu

BSL Grammaticality Judgement Task Paper accepted for publication in journal Cognition

20 April 2012

To download the paper, please click on the following link:

academia.edu/KearsyCormier/Papers/1569746/First_language_acquisition_differs_from_second_language_acquisition_in_prelingually_deaf_signers_Evidence_from_sensitivity_to_grammaticality_judgement_in_British_Sign_Language" target="_blank">Cormier, K., Schembri, A., Vinson, D., & Orfanidou, E. (in press). First language acquisition differs from second language acquisition in prelingually deaf signers: Evidence from sensitivity to grammaticality judgement in British Sign Language. Cognition. Accepted 13 April 2011.


Abstract

Age of acquisition (AoA) effects have been used to support the notion of a critical period for first language acquisition. In this study, we examine AoA effects in deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users via a grammaticality judgment task. When English reading performance and nonverbal IQ are factored out, results show that accuracy of grammaticality judgement decreases as AoA increases, until around age 8, thus showing the unique effect of AoA on grammatical judgement in early learners. No such effects were found in those who acquired BSL after age 8. These late learners appear to have first language proficiency in English instead, which may have been used to scaffold learning of BSL as a second language later in life.