Teachers' Perceptions of Promoting Sign Language Phonological Awareness in an ASL/English Bilingual Program

Abstract

The National Reading Panel emphasizes that spoken language phonological awareness (PA) developed at home and school can lead to improvements in reading performance in young children. However, research indicates that many deaf children are good readers even though they have limited spoken language PA. Is it possible that some deaf students benefit from teachers who promote sign language PA instead? The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine teachers' beliefs and instructional practices related to sign language PA. A thematic analysis is conducted on 10 participant interviews at an ASL/English bilingual school for the deaf to understand their views and instructional practices. The findings reveal that the participants had strong beliefs in developing students' structural knowledge of signs and used a variety of instructional strategies to build students' knowledge of sign structures in order to promote their language and literacy skills.

Computerized Sign Language-Based Literacy Training for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

“…This is in line with earlier reports of connections between vocabulary and reading comprehension in DHH signing children ( Hermans et al, 2008b ), as well as a study by Gentry et al (2004/2005) in which semantic cues (i.e., pictures) aided comprehension of texts in deaf children. Further, the present finding also concurs with findings from deaf adults ( Hirshorn et al, 2015 ), and the notion that DHH signing children can use their sign vocabulary to access meaning of written words at early stages of reading development ( Crume, 2013 ; Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007 ; Hermans et al, 2008a ; Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014 ). In addition, both reading specific ( Language and Reading Research Consortium, 2015 ; Perfetti & Stafura, 2014 ) and language general ( Kintsch & Rawson, 2007 ; Rönnberg et al, 2013 ) models of comprehension, suggest that semantic processes related to vocabulary are crucial for language understanding.…”

“…Proficiency in sign language may provide a foundation for learning to read in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who use sign language as their primary mode of communication ( Chamberlain & Mayberry, 2000 ; Goldin-Meadow & Mayberry, 2001 ; Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014 ). For example, it has been suggested that DHH signing children learn the meaning of orthographic forms by connecting them to sign-based representations ( Crume, 2013 ; Hermans, Knoors, Ormel, & Verhoeven, 2008a ; Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014 ). Indeed, both experimental ( Ormel, Hermans, Knoors, & Vervhoeven, 2012 ) and correlational ( Hermans, Knoors, Ormel, & Verhoeven, 2008b ) data indicate a connection between sign language and reading skills in DHH signing children who are learning to read.…”

Signs for Developing Reading : Sign Language and Reading Development in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

“…Further, exercising connections between signs and written words seems to facilitate word reading (Reitsma, 2009;Wauters et al, 2001). Thus, both earlier work (e.g., Ormel et al, 2012) and the present findings lend support to theoretical notions suggesting that mapping between sign-based representations and written words (Crume, 2013;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007;Hermans et al, 2008a;Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014) may be an important part of early word reading development in DHH signing children. However, the present results may help us to understand these connections a little better.…”

“…It has been suggested that strong sign language skills can provide a base for reading development (e.g., Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014). Scientists who emphasize the importance of strong sign language skills suggest that sign-based semantic representations can become associated with written words and that from this the meaning of the written words can be extracted (Crume, 2013;Hermans, Knoors, Ormel & Verhoeven, 2008a;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007;Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014). Further, sign language skills and sign-based representations can be used to reflect upon, discuss and elaborate on the content of text together with others who have already mastered reading (Hoffmeister & Caldwell-Harris, 2014;Mayberry, 2007;Svartholm, 2010).…”

“…Using these symbols to represent a written word in the manual modality is referred to as fingerspelling (Morere & Roberts, 2012). It has been suggested that fingerspelling can actually provide sign language users with a phonological code of written words in the manual modality that they can use as a bridge across language modalities (Crume, 2013;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007), and there is some empirical support for this (Hanson, Liberman, & Shankweiler, 1984;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007;Stone et al, 2015). In particular, it has been suggested that fingerspelling may support the development of precise and rapid word identification (Stone et al, 2015).…”