Chapter 4 Sign Language for Everyone English Reading
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Chapter 4 Sign Language for Everyone English Reading 1 (Florence Li) Department of Applied Foreign Languages Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology Credit: downloaded from Dreamstime. com
1. What is language? 2. At what age do most babies learn to speak? How do they learn to speak? 3. How do you think deaf babies learn to communicate? 4. How do deaf people communicate? Credit: fomo/- / הסימנים - בשפת - אמוגי - אומרים - איך
Most of us know a little about how babies learn to talk. From the time infants are born, they hear language because their parents talk to them all the time. Between the ages of seven and ten months, most infants begin to make sounds. They repeat the same sounds over and over again. For example, a baby may repeat the sound “dadada” or “bababa. ”
This activity is called babbling. When babies babble, they are practicing their language. Soon, the sound “dadada” may become “daddy, ” and “bababa” may become “bottle. ” What happens, though, to children who cannot hear? How do deaf children learn to communicate? Recently, doctors have learned that deaf babies babble with their hands.
Laura Ann Petitto, a psychologist at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C. , has studied how children learn language. She observed three hearing infants and two deaf infants. The three hearing infants had English-speaking parents. The two deaf infants had deaf mothers and fathers who used American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with each other and with their babies.
Dr. Petitto studied the babies three times: at 10, 12, and 14 months. During this time, children really begin to develop their language skills. Dr. Petitto and her assistants studied the children for four months and made important observations.
For instance, they saw that the hearing children made many different, varied motions with their hands. However, there appeared to be no pattern to these motions. The deaf babies also made many different movements with their hands, but these movements were more consistent, and they seemed to prefer certain hand shapes.
In fact, during the four-month period, the deaf babies’ hand motions started to resemble some of the basic hand-shapes used in ASL. Hearing babies start with simple syllable babbling (dadada), and then put more syllables together to sound like real sentences and questions.
Apparently, deaf babies follow this same pattern, too. First, they repeat simple hand-shapes. Next, they form some simple hand signs (words) and use these movements together to resemble ASL sentences.
Linguists—people who study language—believe that our ability for language is innate. In other words, humans are born with the capacity for language. It does not matter if we are physically able to speak or not.
Other researchers have begun additional studies that focus on teaching “baby signs” to hearing infants. Baby signs are simple signs to speak, for example, mom, dad, cold, hungry, tired. Researchers at the National Institute of Health (NIH) conducted a study to compare two groups of 11 -month-old hearing babies.
They taught some simple baby signs to the first group, and focused on verbal, or speech, training to the second group. Surprisingly, by the time the hearing babies who learned baby signs were two years old, they were more advanced talkers than the second group.
The spoken language difference between the two groups continued to grow. The babies who learned sign language spoke better at three years old, too. Researchers tested the children again at eight years old, and there was still a difference. The researchers have concluded that teaching signs to hearing babies improves their verbal development.
Because of the study’s positive results, researchers now want to focus on early infant education. Although these studies are new, researchers believe teaching baby signs can be very helpful to all children.
infant (n. ) baby, very young child at an early period of its life She has five children, the youngest of whom is still an infant. Separated from his mother when he was just an infant, the boy grew up in a children's home.
apparently (adv. ) evidently, noticeably Apparently the company is losing a lot of money. Apparently, she resigned because she had an argument with her boss.
babble (v. ) to make sounds but not complete words or sentences Babies begin babbling around 5 -7 months of age. The sounds babies make when they talk or babble could hold the key to understanding how language developed.
capacity for (n. ) potential; ability; power to do something Harry had a tremendous capacity for work. A child's capacity for learning in any given moment is determined by internal rhythms.
communicate (v. ) to correspond with, convey information to We communicated mostly by e-mail. How do whales communicate?
communication (n. ) an act of passing on information, feelings, etc. ; the message itself Good communication is vital in a large organization. There was a breakdown in communication.
consistent (adj. ) repeated in the same way I have been consistent in my approach over the years. We need to be consistent in our approach.
deaf (adj. ) unable to hear I think Mum's going a bit deaf. She's been totally deaf since birth.
develop (v. ) to grow, progress The course is designed to help students develop their speaking skills. Get some advice on how to develop your physical strength.
for instance (ph. ) for example We need to rethink the way we consume energy. Take, for instance, our approach to transport. They intend to provide information, via the Internet for instance.
hearing (n. ) with the ability to hear; able to sense sound through the ears She has remarkable hearing for a lady of her age. My hearing has become worse as I've got older.
in other words (ph. ) said differently, usually more directly or simply The tax only affects people on incomes of over $200, 000 - in other words, the very rich. These were people who fought for money – mercenaries, in other words.
innate (adj. ) part of someone from birth, natural Children have an innate ability to learn language. His innate sense of justice made him popular with his workforce.
linguist (n. ) a person who studies language He works as a linguist in his field. When I meet a new person in the field, I often like to ask them how they came to be a linguist.
meaning (n. ) significance, importance of something The meaning of her words was clear. We'd lost our jobs. Times change and ancient customs lose their meaning.
motion (n. ) movement The rocking motion of the boat made Sylvia feel sick. Rub the horse's coat in a circular motion.
movement (n. ) motion A slight movement of the curtains showed where she was hiding. Their job is to monitor the movements of suspected terrorists.
observation (n. ) viewing, watching Detailed observations were carried out on the behavior of the students. Bloomfield's approach to linguistics was based on observation of the language.
syllable (n. ) a part of a word as determined by vowel sounds and rhythm 'son' has one syllable and 'father' has two syllables. The word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter.
varied (adj. ) of different kinds A good teacher is aware of the extremely varied needs of each student. The choir has a varied program of concerts throughout the year.
verbal (adj. ) expressed in spoken words; oral rather than written Do you have it down in writing, or was it just a verbal agreement? He had apparently experienced a lot of verbal abuse from his co-workers.
conclude (v. )to bring to an end; finish; terminate The book concludes with a plea for a change in the law. She concluded the speech by reminding us of our responsibility.
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