Conversational Regulators in American Sign Language Students

Authors : Campbell Mcdermid, Jacob Lipps

Pages : 1-22

Doi:10.37233/TRSPED.2024.0149

View : 46 | Download : 462

Publication Date : 2025-01-06

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Language proficiency can be framed as grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competency. Historically, the grammatical strategies of hearing students who study American Sign Language (ASL) have been emphasized. To address this gap, a Discourse Completion Task was designed to look at a little explored area, conversational regulators, in 14 hearing students who had taken ASL 1 (one semester) as compared to 14 hearing students who reported taking no ASL classes. Participants watched and responded to 11 videotaped contexts in ASL. The findings indicate that the ASL1 students had learned various ASL conversational regulators, such as frowns (* p = .00) and hand waving (the HEY sign in ASL) (* p= .00). They followed Deaf culture norms for not talking and gesturing at the same time (* p = .00). They also demonstrated reduced use of miming compared to the non-ASL students (* p = .00). The findings are discussed within the context of existing literature, and recommendations are offered for future research and practice.
Keywords : Konuşma düzenleyicileri, edinim, Amerikan İşaret Dili, ikinci dil, L2