Little is known about how hearing adults learn sign languages. Our objective in this study was to investigate how learners of British Sign Language (BSL) produce narratives, and we focused in particular on viewpoint-taking. Twenty-three intermediate-level learners of BSL and 10 deaf native/early signers produced a narrative in BSL using the wordless picture book Frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969). We selected specific episodes from part of the book that provided rich opportunities for shifting between different characters and taking on different viewpoints. We coded for details of story content, the frequency with which different viewpoints were used and how long those viewpoints were used for, and the numbers of articulators that were used simultaneously. We found that even though learners’ and deaf signers’ narratives did not differ in overall duration, learners’ narratives had less content. Learners used character viewpoint less frequently than deaf signers. Although learners spent just as long as deaf signers in character viewpoint, they spent longer than deaf signers in observer viewpoint. Together, these findings suggest that character viewpoint was harder than observer viewpoint for learners. Furthermore, learners were less skilled than deaf signers in using multiple articulators simultaneously. We conclude that challenges for learners of sign include taking character viewpoint when narrating a story and encoding information across multiple articulators simultaneously.

中文翻译：

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学习手语时接受观点的挑战：来自英国手语“青蛙故事”的数据

人们对听力成年人如何学习手语知之甚少。我们在这项研究中的目标是调查英国手语 (BSL) 的学习者如何产生叙事，我们特别关注观点采纳。23 名 BSL 中级学习者和 10 名聋哑母语/早期手语者使用无字图画书《青蛙，你在哪里？（梅耶，1969 年）。我们从书中选择了特定的情节，这些情节为在不同角色之间转换和采取不同观点提供了丰富的机会。我们对故事内容的细节、使用不同观点的频率以及这些观点的使用时间以及同时使用的发音器的数量进行了编码。我们发现，尽管学习者和聋人手语者的叙述在总体持续时间上没有差异，但学习者的叙述内容较少。学习者使用性格观点的频率低于聋哑手语者。尽管学习者在性格观点上花费的时间与聋人手语者一样长，但在观察者观点上他们比聋人手语者花费的时间更长。总之，这些发现表明，对于学习者来说，性格观点比观察者观点更难。此外，学习者在同时使用多个咬合架方面不如聋哑手语者熟练。我们得出的结论是，手语学习者面临的挑战包括在讲述故事时采取角色观点以及同时跨多个发音器编码信息。尽管学习者在性格观点上花费的时间与聋人手语者一样长，但在观察者观点上他们比聋人手语者花费的时间更长。总之，这些发现表明，对于学习者来说，性格观点比观察者观点更难。此外，学习者在同时使用多个咬合架方面不如聋哑手语者熟练。我们得出的结论是，手语学习者面临的挑战包括在讲述故事时采取角色观点以及同时跨多个发音器编码信息。尽管学习者在性格观点上花费的时间与聋人手语者一样长，但在观察者观点上他们比聋人手语者花费的时间更长。总之，这些发现表明，对于学习者来说，性格观点比观察者观点更难。此外，学习者在同时使用多个咬合架方面不如聋哑手语者熟练。我们得出的结论是，手语学习者面临的挑战包括在讲述故事时采取角色观点以及同时跨多个发音器编码信息。在同时使用多个咬合架方面，学习者不如聋哑手语者熟练。我们得出的结论是，手语学习者面临的挑战包括在讲述故事时采取角色观点以及同时跨多个发音器编码信息。在同时使用多个咬合架方面，学习者不如聋哑手语者熟练。我们得出的结论是，手语学习者面临的挑战包括在讲述故事时采取角色观点以及同时跨多个发音器编码信息。