A few beers later, and it's still so captivating. I'll try to convey this to you. It could be a blog post or a master's thesis... I could go on and on... here goes
CODA- child of Deaf adults (KODA = kid... ie, young person specifically...)
Anyway, here goes... and enough with the ellipses, huh?
In general, we need to first address bilingualism. KODAs are hypothetically learning both spoken English and signed American Sign Language (at least in this country). and of course, this depends on their exposure. But they are no ordinary bilingual. KODAs are learning two languages of two MODES of communication. WHAT?! Us hearing folk, when we want to learn ASL, it's a fascinating other language, foreign, yet domestic. Ok, gotta get the handshape, palm orientation, and body placement under my belt, but then, I'm good. The other way around, though, can be quite a challenge. Can you imagine if all your life you only used your hands stuck in mittens, and then you needed the fine motor skills to type a weblog entry fluently? I mean, a lot of people (KODAs or Deaf) will use a manual mode of communication as a primary mode of communication. Trying to learn a spoken language is beyond learning the language itself.
Semantics is only one piece of the puzzle. The English phonology is a whole different MODE than the ASL. For this reason, it may be a challenge to learn to speak English as a KODA. A soon-to-be-graduate in the speech-language pathology program at Gallaudet presented recently a case study about a CODA she worked with in the clinic. And it's true, she confirmed it for me, that children of Deaf adults are fascinating. Hearing kids of hearing parents-- some background for you, put very simply-- learn to speak by practicing different sounds. They babble up a storm, and they listen to themselves. They listen to their parents. Over time, they try to match their productions to their models (e.g., family, teachers, peers?, TV, etc...). Oral motor skills are acquired just as any fine motor skill... through practice... and eventual mastery.
Speech samples revealed that he would produce very inconsistent errors. Sometimes he would say a word this way, sometimes a different way... and rarely the correct way. The presenters example was with the word train. Instead, the KODA said "crane" or "wayne"... [I actually don't remember her examples. I made these up]. Now there are a lot of reasons for inconsistent errors. And the bottom line is that he is still learning how to produce it correctly. He makes his best attempt, and he waits for the ever-so-valuable feedback from the therapist to let him know if that sounded right or not.
Let me take a step back. Before any one learns how to produce speech, it's best to listen to how it's supposed to be produced. The presenter also pointed out some curious errors that may be representative of his ability to discriminate between English speech sounds. And ya know, that is a skill itself. Training your ear to hear the difference between sounds seems passive and natural, but in fact, it should be noted that this comes with work (and exposure!). And for some KODAs, this can also be a challenge. For this kid, he had difficulty understanding the name Colt. He responded "cold?" "No, ColTTTT." "Cold??" he replies, signing the COLD gloss simultaneously. And it's true, that /t/ and /d/ are acoustically similar. And it can be difficult to hear the difference. Just as it can be difficult for a Japanese speaker to discriminate between the English /r/ and /l/ (I've done some research. Ask me for references ;-).
Now moving from speech to language (they are not one and the same)- The KODA she presented on initially would just repeat what he heard. Practicing the model? Once they weaned him off of that, he would consistently produce 1-word utterances. This boy was about 3 years old, so he is expected to produce about 3-word utterances at that time (as other hearing kids typically do). Why, as speech and language therapy continued, was he still at 1-word utterances? One idea is rooted in ASL morphology. In ASL, true there are sign glosses (as they are called) which are kinda comparable to words. You put them together, and built meaning. True. But there is a lot more than that. Often, ASL includes such movements of the hands and body and face that are not exactly a sign themselves. So maybe this child is having trouble with this 1 word:1 morpheme idea? He frequently omitted what may be called "function words" like prepositions (e.g., in) and articles (e.g., the)... And there are no 1:1 corresponding ASL glosses for such English words.
So in the end. KODAs blow my mind. They learn two languages at once- aka simultaneous bilingualism. On the other hand, this really depends on the kid. It could be argued that some are sequential bilinguals (learning one language, then learning the other). Either way, they are fine tuning their oral motor skills and their audition skills. The two languages are different modes, and really, they don't follow the typical simultaneous bilingual patterns other children have who are learning two languages within the same mode (spoken). Intriguing. And don't get me wrong! A LOTTTT of KODAs get English down with no problems! The key is really exposure (and interaction). How can you expect to learn a language when you never encounter it?
I don't know what my real point is, but I want to just point out how complicated and awesome this is. Or sometimes is? sigh..
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