Group 4 Language Blog

In the reading, Susan Goldin-Meadow discusses David, and other participants, in her study and how they use “homesigns.” She further discusses the types of gestures that these participants use. An example is how David signals the difference between nouns and verbs; using a twist gesture as a noun to mean jar. Susan points out that as the homesigners got older, their gesture strings grew longer and more complex which then involved multiple actors and actions.

Maybe I am confused, but I had the understanding that these children developed the way they sign on their own and not in a setting where they were taught. So in thinking about this process of learning, I personally think it would be hard for those children to then learn “standard sign.” I just feel that often times, people who have repeatedly done something that works, are then set in their ways. They might not want to change how they communicate if what they had been doing worked well. Home words for us are used around the home and family and typically do not play into our social lives. But for these children, when they go outside of the home and need to be able to communicate on a different level than “home signs,” wouldn’t that be difficult since they are only accustomed to communicating with their close friends or family? I just feel that some of the children would be dead set on keeping their word or phrase and not the one that was taught to them. What are the challenges that they would face? If they go to school and learn sign, how would that affect the homesign that they used? How would that affect the way that they spoke? Would they know two different “languages” for the same word or phrase? I just feel that this would be very difficult for them to learn over what they already know and are used to. I can say as a athlete, I have certain tendencies as I play, some as good habits and some are bad. Could this be the case where they would then need to break that bad habit?