A modified model for the description of language acquisition in a deaf child

Includes bibliographical references (pages 51-52)The study of language acquisition is largely a matter of hypothesizing possible systems available to children learning language, and through careful and systematic observation of chl1drcn???s linguistic performance, discovering what systems actually best describe the process. Such systems have been suggested in general form for the acquisition of language by normally hearing children. Only recently has It been proposed that deaf children with deaf parents might be learning language by the same systematic processes, but in a different mode. American Sign Language (ASL) is the standard language of deaf people on the North American continent. It conforms to all the usual characteristics of a natural language except that it uses a visual manual modality rather than aural/oral one, Systematic processes have been proposed by Boyes-Bracm for the acquisition of hand configuration, a formational feature of American Sign Language. In this study, longitudinal data are presented from observations of one deaf informant and analyzed through the use of the Boyes-Braem model. While the model appears to be a useful one to a large degree, some changes in it are suggested. The study also provides additional evidence that ASL, a non-vocal language, is learned by processes very similar to those proposed for other languages. Such evidence provides further support for the argument that the basic processes of language acquisition are universal