This study investigated the language use of deaf adult bilinguals in conversation with each other in workplace settings, and with their deaf and hearing children in home settings. The aim was to gain insight into the Auslan-English language contact outcomes that might be found in these settings, and what factors influenced these outcomes. The results indicated that the most unique use of language by deaf bilinguals was that of simultaneous use of both spoken English and Auslan, and it was this simultaneous use which facilitated the two examples of code-switching (defined as a complete change of language from Auslan to spoken English) that was found in the data. The other two contact outcomes of significance were frequent transference of English into Auslan, and the equally frequent use of fingerspelling, which has a pivotal role in filling the gap in Auslan, a language with no orthographic form. The study also revealed that Auslan (a signed language) was the language in which many issues of identity were expressed by deaf bilinguals, regardless of whether the individual was a first or second language learner of Auslan. The results confirmed that these language and identity factors did influence the language contact outcomes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/284432 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Bartlett, Meredith Jane |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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