Iconic: The Effect of Iconicity on L2 Acquisition of BSL

It has long been established among linguists that the arbitrary relationship between form and meaning is a fundamental feature of human language. While there are certainly arbitrary elements to human language, there are also iconic ones which feature an intrinsic link between form and meaning. These are especially prevalent in signed languages. Research to date has shown that there is a positive correlation between the perceived iconicity of a sign and the accuracy with which it is recalled by hearing second language learners. However, the effect of a sign’s iconicity on the accuracy of its production by L2 learners is disputed. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate how iconicity affects the ease at which signs from British Sign Language are learned by second language learners taking into account both perception and production abilities. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine the effect of teaching signs alongside others which seem to be iconically related, with implications for teaching BSL as a second language to hearing adults. The empirical data gathered confirms that iconicity is positively correlated with perception accuracy, recall time and production accuracy, and therefore increases overall learnability. Teaching iconically linked signs alongside each other negatively affects learners’ perception and production abilities. In addition, the data suggests that teaching iconically linked signs together causes learners to directly confuse the signs by creating erroneous iconic links.