Abstract:

Simultaneous communication combines spoken English with manual representations of English words by signs and fingerspelling. The purpose of this study was to investigate temporal characteristics of speech produced during simultaneous communication (SC) by beginning signers. Audio recordings of stimulus words embedded in sentences produced with speech only and SC were made by 12 students during the first and last weeks of a 15 week introductory sign language course. Temporal measures included: (a) sentence duration; (b) experimental word duration; (c) vowel duration of the experimental word; (d) interword interval before the experimental word; and (e) interword interval after the experimental word. Results indicated significant temporal differences between speech-only and SC conditions at both the beginning and the end of the sign language course. In addition, a pattern emerged in which beginning signers first signed between words in SC, thereby extending interword intervals, and then, at the end of the sign language course, shifted toward attempting to simultaneously sign while speaking the words, thereby elongating segmental temporal characteristics such as vowel duration. These results are consistent with previous findings regarding the effect of simultaneous communication on temporal characteristics of speech with experienced signers.