Phonological awareness and decoding skills in deaf adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated the phonological awareness skills of a group of deaf adolescents and how these skills correlated with decoding skills (single word and non-word reading) and receptive vocabulary.Twenty, congenitally profoundly deaf adolescents with at least average nonverbal cognitive skills were tested on a range of phonological awareness tasks, and a nonword and real-word reading task, and their speech intelligibility was rated. Scores on a receptive vocabulary measure were gathered from existing records. All participants met an inclusion criterion of scoring within one standard deviation of the mean on a non-verbal reasoning task.As a group, compared to the hearing standardisation samples, the participants' single-word reading fell within the normal range; their non-word reading skills were signifi cantly stronger and their phonological awareness skills and receptive vocabulary were signifi cantly weaker. The participants' phonological awareness skills were relatively stronger at the level of the phoneme than the rhyme. Correlations between single word and non-word reading and phonological awareness skills were signifi cant. Taking receptive vocabulary as a covariate, the association between word reading and phonological awareness was reduced but remained signifi cant, but the association between non-word reading and phonological awareness became non-signifi cant.The participants had developed good grapheme-phoneme knowledge in spite of relatively weak phonological awareness skills. This study is not able to inform whether this has occurred because only a minimal level of phonological awareness is necessary for grapheme-phoneme skills to develop or whether the process of learning to read has led to the development of grapheme-phoneme and phonological awareness skills, but ideas for future research are discussed.

Research Methods in Studying Reading and Literacy Development in Deaf Children Who Sign

“…Gravenstede & Roy, 2009;Harris & Moreno, 2006). Deaf children come from diverse language and communication backgrounds, ranging from native sign language users with deaf parents through to the vast majority who communicate through speech and have hearing parents.…”

Influence of Socialization on Academic Performance of Learners With Hearing Impairment at Inclusive Primary Schools in Kenya: A Case in Thawabu Primary of Nairobi City County

“…A study in the United States of America by McVilly (2004), reported that learners with hearing impairment often lack friends and experience a lot of loneliness as a result of communication barrier. Good academic results have generally been observed in learners with hearing impairment who are mainstreamed, but they also show higher degrees of isolation and psychological problems due to limited communication (Gravenstede, 2009). This implies that even in the developed countries, learners with hearing impairment are still bound to face some challenges.…”

Functional diversity in higher education: curriculum accommodation for people with vision disability or hearing impairment in the English as a Foreign Language classroom

“…A study of EFL for D/HH learners (Domagała-Zyśk & Podlewska, 2019) revealed that students could attain the same level of oral proficiency in the foreign language as in their mother tongue, although aspects related to phonology were challenging (Gravenstede, 2009;Hrastinski & Wilbur, 2016;Marschark et al, 2019). Additionally, several studies have concluded that figurative language was an area in which they struggled on a par with their lexical and syntactical range in their first language and, hence, foreign or second language (Domagała-Zyśk, 2015Dowaliby, 1999;Hrastinski & Wilbur, 2016;Kontra et al, 2015;López Sánchez, 2006;Lund, 2019;Markschark et al, 2009).…”

“…However, the first is nasal, whereas the second and the third are occlusives, which is something that the eye cannot capture. Moreover, /p/ and /b/ also differ in phonation, which is another aspect that is not easily perceived (Atcherson et al, 2017;Ferrández Mora & Villalba Pérez, 1996;Gravenstede, 2009;Markschark et al, 2009). This can be particularly challenging in foreign language teaching when it comes assessing students' pronunciation accuracy and fluency in the language.…”

“…On the assumption that as it is not oral communication, there should not be any barrier and, therefore, the same level of exigency should be applied. Nevertheless, some research suggests that reading and writing skills can be poorer in D/HH learners (Gravenstede, 2009; Oficina para la Integración de Personas con Discapacidad (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), n.d.). Twenty per cent of the surveyed were lenient in vocabulary command, while 10% were slightly permissive in grammar and text organisation.…”