sign language

rabbit said:
Or maybe how well one does at receiving? Being as the mind of such a person may work, on the visual end of the scale, better than most people? Just a thought, I don't really know what I'm talking about ;)
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Nope--receptive and expressive language is processed int he auditory portion of the brain whether in spoken form or visual form. Some enlightened neurologists and cognitive spych researchers are beginning to rename this area of the brain as the language center rather than the auditory center. Artistic talent is more of an ability to perceive and portray spatial relationships and is related to an eye hand coordination as well as perceptual difference.
 
Yiffzer said:
No, sign language is impossible to learn and understand.
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yes, you're right. Even pretty girls who love to learn ASL cannot understand whole thing until 1 or 2 years and finally get wonderful communicate and end in bed.
 
jillio said:
Artistic talent is more of an ability to perceive and portray spatial relationships and is related to an eye hand coordination as well as perceptual difference.
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There was a very interesting study by Bellugi or Bellugi and Klima which looked at deaf stroke victims (might have included native ASL users who weren't deaf, I can't remember now) who had had their motor functions damaged in some way by their stroke. They found that even though the stroke patients no longer had normal motor function, they were able to SIGN with no noticeable changes, even though some of the movements in ASL were similar to the motions that the patients could no longer perform in a non-linguistic context.

I'm probably garbling the information somewhat, but it was a fascinating and groundbreaking study that showed very convincingly that ASL is not a motor skill but truly a language.
 
^ I sit corrected then! This is a very interesting subject though... can you point me in the direction of some more material on it?
 
Interpretrator said:
There was a very interesting study by Bellugi or Bellugi and Klima which looked at deaf stroke victims (might have included native ASL users who weren't deaf, I can't remember now) who had had their motor functions damaged in some way by their stroke. They found that even though the stroke patients no longer had normal motor function, they were able to SIGN with no noticeable changes, even though some of the movements in ASL were similar to the motions that the patients could no longer perform in a non-linguistic context.

I'm probably garbling the information somewhat, but it was a fascinating and groundbreaking study that showed very convincingly that ASL is not a motor skill but truly a language.
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Thanks for the info! I've followed Bellugi's research, but don't remember that study. I'll look for it.:ty:
 
Start with the book, Seeing Voices by Oliver Saks. It covers the neurological base, but in a very interesting way. Then you can move onto some of the dryer cognitive psych research.
 
I started out by taking ASL classes at around 26 years old...my ASL instructor said the best way to learn the language is to immerse oneself in it so I tried socializing with deaf people but was snubbed due to growing up oral. I still didnt give up...kept going until I reached level 4 ASL. Still wasnt proficient after 2 years and I went to Gallaudet University..from there, my fluency in ASL improved. I think it took me around 5 years to become fluent in ASL. The strange thing is my receptive skills in ASL are a whole lot better than my expressive skills. I still struggle to sign fluenty using classifiers but that is slowly improving cuz I have to use them a lot for teaching 1st graders.

I think the length of time to learn sign language varies with each individual and their situations.

Good luck!
 
In general, I think some people learn new languages more easily than others, regardless of whether the particular language is signed or spoken. People who struggled with spoken foreign languages is school, will not find that learning a sign language is any easier, regardless of their artistic abilities.
 
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