L2 Learners’ Signed Language Processing Relates, in Part, to Perspective-Taking Skills

Abstract

The comprehension of signed language requires linguistic and visual–spatial processing, such as perspective-taking for correctly interpreting the layout of a spatial scene. However, little is known about how adult second-language (L2) learners process visual–spatial constructions in a signed language that they are studying, including which angles of viewing are most challenging to process and whether there are relationships between perspective-taking and the comprehension of non-spatial (i.e., non-scene based) constructions. We examine the performance of 95 intermediate signers of American Sign Language (ASL) on linguistic and non-linguistic perspective-taking tests. Half the participants completed a test of narrative comprehension that included visual–spatial scenes, and half took a test of signed phonological and morphophonological discrimination. Performance on linguistic perspective-taking correlated moderately with performance on the narrative, but not with the discrimination test. These findings support the claim that perspective-taking skills are yoked to some—but not all—aspects of signed language learning.