Denna sida på svenska

Research project From speech to sign – learning Swedish Sign Language as a second language

What happens when adults learn sign language as a second language? This project examined second language learning of languages expressed in a different modality than the speaker's first language.

Photo by Volodomyr Melnyk/Mostphotos

Usually when people learn a new language, it is a language that is expressed in the same modality as their mother tongue. A person with Spanish as their first language can, for example, learn Swedish. But what happens when a person learns a language that operates in a different modality? A language that is not spoken, but is expressed gestually-visually, as sign language? In this project, we investigated how adults learn sign language as a second language.

Project members

Project managers

Krister Schönström

Docent

Department of Linguistics

schonstrom@ling.su.se

Members

Johanna Mesch

Professor

Department of Linguistics

johanna.mesch@ling.su.se

Publications

From Design and Collection to Annotation of a Learner Corpus of Sign Language

Mesch, J., & Schönström, K. (2018). From Design and Collection to Annotation of a Learner Corpus of Sign Language. 8th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Involving the Language Community : Proceedings, 121–126.

Use and acquisition of mouth actions in L2 sign language learners: A corpus-based approach

Mesch, J., & Schönström, K. (2021). Use and acquisition of mouth actions in L2 sign language learners : A corpus-based approach. Sign Language and Linguistics, 24(1), 36–62.

Mouthings in Swedish Sign Language: An exploratory study

Mesch, J., Schönström, K., & Embacher, S. (2021). Mouthings in Swedish Sign Language : An exploratory study. Grazer Linguistische Studien, 93, 107–135.

Sign languages and second language acquisition research : An introduction.

Schönström, K. (2021). Sign languages and second language acquisition research : An introduction. Journal of the European Second Language Association, 5(1), 30–43.

Use of nonmanuals by adult L2 signers in Swedish Sign Language – Annotating the nonmanuals

Schönström, K., & Mesch, J. (2014). Use of nonmanuals by adult L2 signers in Swedish Sign Language – Annotating the nonmanuals. 6th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages : Beyond the Manual Channel, 153–156.

A second language learner corpus in Swedish Sign Language.

Mesch, J., & Schönström, K. (2017). A second language learner corpus in Swedish Sign Language. Presented at the Workshop Corpus-based approaches to sign language linguistics: Into the second decade, CL2017 pre-conference workshop, Birmingham, UK, July 24, 2017.

Use of non-manual mouth actions in L1 and L2 signers based on data from two different SL corpora

Mesch, J., & Schönström, K. (2019). Use of non-manual mouth actions in L1 and L2 signers based on data from two different SL corpora (SSLC and SSLC-L2). Presented at the SignNonmanuals Workshop 2, Graz, Austria, 3-4 May, 2019.

Use of ENTITY, HANDLE and DESCRIPTOR in L2 learners of Swedish Sign Language

Mesch, J., Schönström, K., & Larsson, Y. (2018). Use of ENTITY, HANDLE and DESCRIPTOR in L2 learners of Swedish Sign Language. Sign CAFÉ 1 : The First International Workshop on Cognitive and Functional Explorations in Sign Language Linguistics, 27–28

The interaction between mouth actions and signs in Swedish Sign Language as an L2

Mesch, J., Schönström, K., Riemer Kankkonen, N., & Wallin, L. (2016). The interaction between mouth actions and signs in Swedish Sign Language as an L2. Presented at the The 12th International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR), Melbourne, Australia, January 4-7, 2016.

Corpus in Swedish Sign Language as a Second Language (SSLC-L2) – A Report.

Schönström, K., & Mesch, J. (2019). Corpus in Swedish Sign Language as a Second Language (SSLC-L2) – A Report. Presented at the Nordic Sign Language Corpus and Lexical Database seminar, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, 21-22 May, 2019.

Building up L2 Corpora in Different Signed Languages : SSL, ISL and ASL.

Schönström, K., Dye, M., Leeson, L., & Mesch, J. (2015). Building up L2 Corpora in Different Signed Languages : SSL, ISL and ASL. Presented at the 2nd International Conference on Sign Language Acquisition, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 1-3, 2015.

Frequency and distribution of signs and sign proficiency in second language (L2) signers

Schönström, K., & Mesch, J. (2019). Frequency and distribution of signs and sign proficiency in second language (L2) signers – a longitudinal and comparative study. Presented at the TISLR13, the 13th conference of Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, Hamburg, Germany, 26-28 September, 2019.

Gesture, signs and L2/M2 acquisition corpus in Swedish Sign Language

Schönström, K., & Mesch, J. (2017). Gesture, signs and L2/M2 acquisition corpus in Swedish Sign Language. Presented at the Language as a form of action, Rome, Italy, June 21-23, 2017.

Syntaktisk struktur i svenskt teckenspråk hos hörande andraspråksinlärare 

Gärdenfors, M. (2017). Syntaktisk struktur i svenskt teckenspråk hos hörande andraspråksinlärare : – En analys av ordföljd, bisatser och användning av verb (MA Thesis)

Användning av perspektiv i svenskt teckenspråk hos hörande andraspråksinlärare (Dissertation)

Willing, J. (2019). Användning av perspektiv i svenskt teckenspråk hos hörande andraspråksinlärare (MA Thesis).