Translucency and Learnability of Blissymbols in Setswana-speaking Children: An Exploration

Abstract

Although the importance of iconicity in the learning of symbols has been widely acknowledged, there have been few systematic investigations into the influence of culture on the ratings of symbol iconicity. The purposes of this study were two-fold: to determine (a) the translucency ratings of specific Blissymbols as rated by 6- to 7-year-old Setswana-speaking children (one of South Africa's 11 official languages); and (b) whether the ratings changed after second and third exposures in order to determine the learnability of these symbols. This study is partially based on the study by Quist et al. (), which utilized Dutch and American participants. Thirty-four Setswana children were exposed to 93 selected Blissymbols. A 3-point semantic differential scale consisting of three faces accompanied each Blissymbol, without the written gloss. This procedure was repeated over a period of 3 days. The results indicated that the majority of Blissymbols were rated as having high translucency ratings. The research further demonstrated significant differences in translucency between first and second exposures, suggesting that learning of the symbols had occurred. The comparison between the results of the current study and the results reported in the Quist et al. study reveal that the translucency ratings of the majority of the selected Blissymbols ranged from moderate to high for all three studies, but that the distribution of symbols across the ratings appears to be different.

Keywords:

• Blissymbols
• Cultural issues
• Learnability
• Semantic differential scale
• Subsequent exposure
• Translucency

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

This paper is based on a Master's thesis that the third author completed in 2006 for the MA(AAC) degree at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The thesis was completed under the supervision and co-supervision of the first and second authors respectively.

1 Setswana is an indigenous African language and is spoken widely in Southern Africa with an estimated four million speakers, including speakers in Zimbabwe and Namibia (UNESCO World Languages Report Survey Questionnaire, 2008).

2 Graphic symbols are in capital letters and italicized (notation suggested by von Tetzchner & Grove, 2003).