Project E7: Critical periods for the acquisition of German and of German Sign Language: Is being multilingual of any advantage?
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Röder, Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Hänel, Institute for Disability Studies
Research Assistants: Monique Kügow, Uta Salden, Nils Skotara
Student Assistants: Melanie Drewke, Malwine Masius, Lutz Pepping
Contact: biopsychologie"AT"uni-hamburg.de
Cooperation partners:
- Institut für Deutsche Gebärdensprache und Kommunikation Gehörloser (IDGS)
- Prof. Dr. Helen Neville, Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Oregon, USA
- Dr. Mairead MacSweeney, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK
Research questions
The functional organization of German (written language) and of German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) is studied in deaf and hearing people, who have learned DGS and German at different ages.The following questions are leading our research project:
- How does the delayed acquisition of a first language (L1) influence the competence in and the cerebral organization of an L1?
- Are there quantitative and/or qualitative differences between a delayed L1 acquisition and a delayed L2 acquisition learned, at the same age?