What is interference in bilingual signing?

What is interference in bilingual signing?

• A. The signer's two languages intersect, resulting in linguistic intrusions from their first language.
• B. A clean separation of two language systems during signing.
• C. The process of translating signs into spoken language.
• D. A failure to produce signs due to cognitive overload.

Answer: (A)

Interference in bilingual signing happens when the two language systems interact in the signer’s production, causing intrusions from the first language into signing. Because both languages share cognitive resources, features from L1 creep into L2 signing—for example, English word order or grammatical markers appearing in ASL, or signs that reflect English syntax even though ASL would use a different structure. This cross-language influence is exactly what’s described by a signers’ two languages intersecting and bringing in elements from their first language. It’s not about a clean separation of the systems, it’s not simply translating signs into spoken language, and it’s not about cognitive overload causing a failure to sign.

Interference in bilingual signing happens when the two language systems interact in the signer’s production, causing intrusions from the first language into signing. Because both languages share cognitive resources, features from L1 creep into L2 signing—for example, English word order or grammatical markers appearing in ASL, or signs that reflect English syntax even though ASL would use a different structure. This cross-language influence is exactly what’s described by a signers’ two languages intersecting and bringing in elements from their first language. It’s not about a clean separation of the systems, it’s not simply translating signs into spoken language, and it’s not about cognitive overload causing a failure to sign.