Aspects of rhythm in American Sign Language: A comparative study of native and non-native signers

This investigation is a comparative study of native signers, fluent signers and student signers on tasks designed to elicit a variety of rhythmic measures. Three groups of seven subjects each signed isolated lexical items, phrases and paragraphs under different rate conditions yielding measures of duration, movement amplitude and velocity from which rhythmic structure could be studied. The native, fluent and student signing groups performed differently from one another on a number of measures, including: rate of signing, frequency and duration of pauses, movement amplitude, velocity and numbers of self corrections. When marking the ends of phrases, native signers produced signs that were significantly longer, larger and with greater velocity than the two non-native signing groups. Native signers altered their rate of signing by changing the duration and movement amplitude of the lexical items and transitions between signs. Non-native signers made the greatest change in transition duration resulting in a choppy, segmented appearance rather than a smooth flow from one sign to the next. Native signers produced signs in isolation that were different from those same signs produced in context, a behavior that the non-native signing groups did not exhibit. Perceptually, the three groups were viewed as distinctly different from one another. Additionally, they were perceived to be signing at different rates, as was their intention. Implications for ASL second language learning are discussed