Language exposure and use among children acquiring Finnish Sign Language
Temas
Detalles
Children acquiring sign language (SL) form a heterogeneous group in which the hearing statuses of the children, parents, and family members, as well as the children’s access to language and opportunities to use the languages acquired, vary across children. The context of language acquisition and features of the linguistic environment among these children are unique but rarely studied, especially in smaller SL communities. This research explores the features of language exposure, language use, and the multilingual nature of the linguistic environment among children acquiring Finnish Sign Language (FinSL). Altogether, 188 hearing and deaf children and adolescents (0;8–17;10) acquiring FinSL participated in this study, and the data were collected by a parental questionnaire. Children were placed into four groups based on the hearing status of the child and the parents (hearing children of deaf adults, deaf of deaf, deaf of hearing, and hearing of hearing). The features of children’s language exposure, frequency of meeting other language users, and children’s language use with different interlocutors were compared among the child groups. The results revealed that different SLs, spoken languages, and multilingualism play a considerable role in children’s linguistic environment but display distinct patterns across the child groups. The observed differences and similarities in language exposure, frequency of interaction with other language users, and patterns of language use between groups help illustrate the complex, dynamic nature of children’s multilingualism. This highlights the importance of acknowledging children’s linguistic environment as multifaceted and suggests describing children’s linguistic environment in a more nuanced, detailed manner in further studies.