Co-speech gesture in monolinguals has been linked to several cognitive processes: prompting memory stores, conveying spatial concepts, searching for lexical equivalents, and supporting rhythm and cohesion. The production of co-speech gesture also occurs in spoken language bilinguals. Studies have demonstrated that bilinguals fluent in American…

Infants are born highly sensitive to the natural patterns found in languages. They use their perceptual sensitivity to acquire detailed information about the structure of languages in their environment. To date, most studies of infant perception and early language acquisition have investigated spoken/auditory languages and hearing infants (e.g.…

Skilled hearing readers activate phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations in order to recognize and comprehend words. However, deaf readers may achieve reading comprehension by different means. More specifically, enhanced visual attention, reduced access to phonology, and bimodal bilingualism may influence how deaf readers…

The nature of this research study examines the relationship between text-talking and writing skills used by American Sign Language (ASL) and English speakers. When given ample opportunity to text-talk in academic settings, it is likely that students will improve their expressive communication and writing skills. The main research question asks:…

In my dissertation, I examine four notation systems used to represent hand configurations in child acquisition of signed languages. Linguists have long recognized the descriptive limitations of Stokoe notation, currently the most commonly used system for phonetic or phonological transcription, but continue using it because of its widespread…

This dissertation describes the features of co-speech gestures of English/ASL bilinguals and addresses three main questions: 1) How do English/ASL bilinguals gesture differently than non-signers? 2) How do native ASL/English bilinguals gesture differently than non-native English/ASL bilinguals? 3) Do English/ASL bilinguals gesture differently to…

The main research question of this dissertation is the nature of language interaction effects observed in linguistic patterns of multilingual children. Such effects--often described as syntactic transfer/influence of one of the languages on the other--have been richly documented in the multilingualism literature. I review an influential model…

This case study explores the relationship between teachers' language knowledge and their grammar teaching practices within the context of a bilingual school for the deaf in Sweden, a country that has demonstrated success in educating deaf children bilingually in written Swedish and Sweden's signed language. The study's participants were two…

This study examines Deaf parents with children who have cochlear implants on their beliefs and perspectives of bilingualism in American Sign Language and English using complementary mixed methods through surveys and follow-up interviews. Seventeen families participated in the survey and eight families continued their participation in semi-formal…

Bilinguals sometimes outperform age-matched monolinguals on non-language tasks involving cognitive control. But the bilingual advantage is not consistently found in every experiment and may reflect specific attributes of the bilinguals tested. The goal of this dissertation was to determine if the way in which bilinguals use language, specifically…

The effectiveness of using American Sign Language (ASL) handshape stories to teach word recognition in whole stories using a descriptive case study approach was explored. Four profoundly deaf children ages 7 to 8, enrolled in a self-contained deaf education classroom in a public school in the south participated in the story time five-week…