Deaf Learners' Lexical Acquisition of English Verbs and Their Component Properties

聋人学习者对英语动词的词汇习得及其成分属性

• 批准号: 1251342
• 负责人: Gerald Berent
• 金额: $ 30.05万
• 依托单位: Rochester Institute of Tech
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1251342&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Deaf; Learners; Lexical; Acquisition; English

A verb plays a central role in establishing the form and meaning of a sentence because every verb, along with its meaning, has properties that determine what other structures can occur with it in a sentence and how the whole sentence functions in communicating events. For example, specific properties of the English verbs 'sink' and 'build' determine the acceptability of the sentences "The enemy sank the ship" and "The enemy built the ship," as well as the acceptability of "The ship sank" but the unacceptability of "The ship built." Hearing native speakers naturally acquire the requisite lexical knowledge of English verbs that determines the admissible forms and functions of sentences. However, acquisition of spoken-language knowledge under exceptional circumstances, as with deaf persons, can be compromised because deaf learners have (variably) restricted auditory access to input from the spoken language. Under these circumstances, lower levels of proficiency in the spoken language often result, with potentially serious negative consequences for educational and career success.To gain a deeper understanding of deaf learners' lexical acquisition of English verbs, this research project undertakes a comprehensive investigation of deaf college students' knowledge of isolatable lexical properties of verbs using sentence acceptability rating scale tasks. It examines deaf learners' verb knowledge as it pertains to transitivity and intransitivity, verb-determined sentence structure, the semantic roles of verbs' subjects and objects, meaning classes of verbs, and the roles verbs play in communicating events such as actions, activities, and accomplishments. Deaf learners' English verb knowledge within and across these lexical domains is compared to the verb knowledge of their hearing college-level peers and hearing second-language learners of English, whose English acquisition exhibits many parallels with deaf learners' acquisition. The findings of this research will also establish an empirical basis on which to develop more effective methods for teaching English to deaf students.

动词在确定句子的形式和意义方面起着核心作用，因为每个动词和它的意义都有属性，这些属性决定了它在句子中可以出现什么其他结构，以及整个句子在交际事件中如何发挥作用。例如，英语动词“Sink”和“Build”的特殊性质决定了“敌人击沉了船”和“敌人建造了船”这两个句子的可接受性，以及“船沉没”的可接受性和“船的建造”的不可接受性。听母语的人自然会获得必要的英语动词词汇知识，这些知识决定了句子的可接受形式和功能。然而，在特殊情况下获得口语知识，就像聋人一样，可能会受到影响，因为聋人学习者(可变地)限制了从口语输入的听觉途径。为了更深入地了解聋生对英语动词的词汇习得情况，本研究采用句子可接受性评定量表任务，对聋人大学生英语动词的词汇习得情况进行了全面调查。它考察了聋人学习者的动词知识，包括及物性和不及物性，动词决定的句子结构，动词主语和宾语的语义角色，动词的意义类别，以及动词在行为、活动和成就等交际事件中所起的作用。聋人学习者在这些词汇领域内和跨词汇领域的英语动词知识与他们的听力大学水平的同龄人和听力第二语言学习者的动词知识进行了比较，后者的英语习得与聋人学习者的习得有许多相似之处。这项研究的发现也将为开发更有效的聋生英语教学方法奠定经验基础。