Co-activation of German Sign Language and written German in deaf bimodal bilinguals and hearing L2/M2 learners: The developmental trajectory of behavioral and neural correlates

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Agnes Villwock
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501669278

Deaf signers are almost universally bimodal bilingual users of a signed language and a spoken language, the latter often in its written form. However, the exact manner in which knowledge of a signed language impacts written word recognition is not fully understood. A better understanding of how two languages which do not share the same modality are processed during development and adulthood is crucial in order to identify the important factors in successful language acquisition and literacy. The current study addresses this gap in the literature. Building on preliminary work, we will investigate for the first time whether deaf German-DGS bimodal bilingual children activate DGS signs while reading written words in German. To this end, the electroencephalogram (EEG) will be recorded during a German semantic judgement task with an implicit priming paradigm. The task will be presented to several experimental groups of deaf and hearing signers of DGS (including children and adults), as well as hearing non-signing control groups. In order to fully examine the effects of signed language knowledge on lexical processing of written words, a neuroscientific approach is essential. By investigating crossmodal language activation on both behavioral and neural levels in these populations, we aim to identify factors that determine the magnitude and specifics of co-activation effects for both behavioral outcomes and the underlying neural correlates.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Jill P. Morford, Ph.D.; Professorin Erin Wilkinson, Ph.D.