Notes

Outline
Sign language and deaf culture
• Spoken language acquisition by deaf children
– without cochlear implants
– with cochlear implants
Approximately 2 children per 1000 are born with sensorineural hearing loss
• Sign vs. spoken language
– similarities and differences
• ‘Critical period’ for language acquisition
CL2207 Chinese Language and Culture
Week 7‐8; 29 Feb & 7 Mar 2016
Instructor: Iris Ouyang
– ‘Sound and Fury: Six Years Later’
– ‘The Heather World: Heather Artinian at TEDxGeorgetown’
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Spoken language acquisition by deaf children without cochlear implants
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Cochlear Implants work
differently from hearing aids
• The kitchen scene with little Heather and her grandmother in ‘Sound and Fury’
 Hearing aids amplify sounds so they may be detected by damaged ears
o Why do deaf people speak the way they speak?
 Cochlear implants bypass damaged portions of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve
• Recall what happened before the emergence of Nicaraguan Sign Language
 Signals generated by the implant are sent by way of the auditory nerve to the brain, which recognizes the signals as sound
 Hearing through a cochlear implant is different from normal hearing and takes time to learn or relearn
o How did the deaf children do with lip‐reading and finger‐
spelling Spanish?
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http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/eyes/cochlear.html
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/coch.htm
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•
•
•
https://www.evms.edu/media/evms_publi
c/departments/otolaryngology/hearing__b
alance_center/ear_works2.jpg
http://www.nyee.edu/files/Patient%20Car
e/EarCOMMA%20Nose%20and%20Throat
%20Services/The%20Ear%20Institute/Coc
hlear%20Implant%20Center/Cochlear‐
Implant‐External‐Diagram.jpg
http://www.ent.uci.edu/clinical‐
specialties/images/how%20implant%20wo
rks.jpg
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What does it sound like when heard
through cochlear implants?
Spectral resolution:
Language
original, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 channel
Language
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 channels, original
Song
4, 8, 16, 32 channels, original
Instruments
4, 8, 16, 32 channels, original
Find out more on: http://ecs.utdallas.edu/loizou/cimplants/index.html
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What cochlear implants can/can’t do (1)
 It’s
possible (for native speakers) to understand speech
sentence down to 4 or 2 spectral channels. At 8
channels, words already have fairly good quality.
 However, it’s hard to recognize the music sequence
even with 32 channels, although some melodic
information is already available at 16 channels.
Speech recognition involves top-down processing,
which is tolerant of considerable degradation.
Whereas, music recognition requires fine details that
are not accessible through cochlear implants.
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Hearing adult vs. children
listening to cochlear implant simulations
Spectral resolution
4 channels
6 channels
8 channels
10 channels
12 channels
Original
Find out more on: http://ecs.utdallas.edu/loizou/cimplants/index.html
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sign vs. spoken language
What cochlear implants can/can’t do (2)
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 Children
have less ability to access lexical information
from speech with degraded spectral cues
 For implanted children, language doesn’t come as
naturally as for hearing children



It is extremely important to receive enough language
exposure during the critical period of language
development.
Any example in Sound and Fury?


Sign language can only convey simple, concrete
meanings?
Sign language is largely iconic?
There is a universal sign language?
Chinese Sign Language is a translation of Mandarin
Chinese into signs?
Deaf children have to go to school to learn sign
language?
Chinese finger‐spelling systems
• Singapore National Pledge in signs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suyWcgMeAd4
• Singapore Sign Language for Sports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFy2TxvLk8M
• Japanese vs. American vs. French Sign Language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kqhrLAz2n8
• American Sign Language ‐ Greetings and Introductions (4 parts, available on IVLE)
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http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2007/04/02/chinese‐sign‐language‐fingerspelling
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Sounds in Mandarin Chinese
sign vs. spoken language
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
Modality

Spoken language: Vocal-auditory mode

Sign language: Manual-visual mode



Articulator, the place of articulation, and the manner of articulation
Hand shape, palm orientation, location on signer’s body, and
movement path
Simultaneity: The extra bandwidth of the visuospatial
modality compensates the slowness of the manual
articulators.
http://web.csulb.edu/~txie/pcr/initialandfinalIPA/initial.jpg
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‘Critical period’ for cochlear implantation
• Best before age 3.5, no later than age 7
– Sharma, A., & Campbell, J. (2011). A sensitive period for cochlear implantation in deaf children. The Journal of Maternal‐Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 24(sup1), 151‐153.
• Recall that hearing children master their L1 by age 7
Heather’s spoken language development
• ‘Sound and Fury’ (6 years old)
• ‘Sound and Fury: Six Years Later’ (12 years old)
• ‘The Heather World: Heather Artinian at TEDxGeorgetown’ (college)
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