The written language of deaf adolescents: patterns of performance

A study was conducted of the written language skills of a representative sample of 69 adolescents with severe and profound hearing losses, using both a standardized language sample (TOWL-2) and a letter. The overall results confirmed the generally low levels of performance typically found in this population and the existence of a developmental plateau. Nevertheless, performance levels were not uniformly low. The sample scored relatively high on measures of orthographic conventions and on semantics, but considerably lower on use of grammar. While females scored higher than males, and students in Auditory/Oral (A/O) programs scored higher than those in Total Communication (TC) programs, the profile of scores did not vary by group. In general, the letter elicited higher levels of performance than the standardized sample, although the latter elicited more grammatically complex writing. Factor analysis indicated that the various measures derived from the two samples were associated more strongly by genre than by levels of language form.     

加强文字管理规范社会用字

文字是辅助语言进行交际的重要工具 ,而社会用字是流通于社会 ,用于社会交际领域的文字。社会用字大致包括四个方面 :出版印刷用字 ,影视用字 ,计算机用字和城镇街头用字。它面向公众 ,影响最大 ,具有强烈的社会性。所以 ,我们在使用时就必须遵守统一的明确的标准。只有这样社会交际才能顺利实现 ,社会生产和人民生活才能有条不紊地进行。多年来 ,我国推行汉字正字法 ,规范汉字字形 ,做了许多工作 ,并取得了成效。但我们也看到 ,目前在社会用字方面仍然存在着比较严重的混乱现象 ,具体表现为滥用繁体字 ,乱造简化字 ,随便写错别字等等。社会…     

The use of repair strategies: bilingual deaf children using sign language and spoken language

The language effects on repair strategies employed by 7 bilingual deaf children (native signers who also used spoken language) was examined. During two sessions--one conducted in sign language and the other in spoken language--each child described a picture. The examiner stopped the child twice to request clarification. The children's responses to the requests were coded into seven repair strategies. Results indicated that language mode significantly influenced repair strategy behavior: In sign language, the children used a greater frequency, variety, and level of strategies. The position of the clarification request also had an effect: Later in the sequence, the children used more advanced strategies. It was assumed that these native signers evidenced a higher language level in sign, which allowed them to use more advanced communicational strategies in sign than in spoken language. This performance gap should be considered in intervention.     

Joint attention strategies used by a preschool educator who is deaf

This exploratory study examined the attention-gaining and attention-regaining strategies used by a preschool educator who is Deaf during child-directed play. Four children (2 with typical hearing and 2 with severe-to-profound hearing loss) were videotaped interacting with the educator in two different play contexts. The educator used four different strategies to gain and to regain the children's attention: visual, visual using an American Sign Language (ASL) sign, tactile/vibratory, and observing/waiting. Overall, tactile and visual strategies were used with the same frequency and occurred more often than either waiting or using an ASL sign to establish joint attention. With the exception of waiting, all strategies were equally successful at gaining or regaining the children's attention. The knowledge and experience of educators with hearing loss potentially provide important insights into enhancing the effectiveness of the communicative environment for preschool children with hearing loss. The implications of this line of inquiry include training for educators on the effective use of strategies to establish joint attention with preschool children with hearing loss.     

Egocentric language in deaf children

Egocentric language is a generalization of Piaget's egocentric speech concept (1926/1969) investigated by Vygotsky (1962). Behaviors of eight children ages 2 to 5 years with profound congenital deafness were analyzed using six classes of egocentric language: motor reaction activity, silent lips articulation, murmur, oral-facial mimics, body expression, and vocalization. No child had received oral or sign language training. All attended videotaped play sessions. Events in which children engaged in "dialogue" with themselves or a toy, while pursuing a specific solution, were observed. Such extralinguistic behavior moves the thinking process toward problem solving like that of hearing children. Consequently, teachers should not interrupt when a deaf child is playing with or signing or vocalizing to a toy, because this behavior may be the manifestation of a reflexive moment and the generator of a decision process fundamental for cognitive development. Vocalization by a deaf child does not indicate willingness to speak; it merely manifests symbolic reasoning. Silent lips articulation and oral-facial mimics have the same effect and can also be interpreted.     

Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students

Deaf students often differ from their hearing peers in written language development. Providing developmentally appropriate instruction is ideal, yet current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the written language (i.e., syntactic) development of deaf students. In this research, we use a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach to language analysis to provide teachers with a new way to evaluate deaf students’ writing. This project consisted of two studies. The first study focused on determining whether SFG analysis could be helpful for teachers of the deaf. The second study focused on mapping a trajectory of the written language development of deaf students and the development of written language inventory for teachers of the deaf. This inventory, along with additional evaluation tools, has the potential to impact both objective setting and instruction.     

Predictor variables of written picture naming in the deaf

Studies conducted in recent years on oral andwritten language production show that the ageat which words are learned is the main variablethat influences lexical access in both hearingpeople and people who have suffered brainlesions. No studies have been done with deafpeople and, since they use sign language inaddition to oral language, differencesregarding hearing people might be found intheir lexical organization. The aim of thisstudy was to test which variables determine thelexical production of deaf people. For thispurpose, 40 deaf people between the ages of 13and 58 years were asked to write individuallythe names of 100 pictures. The regressionanalyses performed on a total of 4000 responsesshow that the main predictor variable ofperformance was also age of acquisition. It isconcluded that the organization of the lexicalsystem in deaf people is similar to that of hearing people, although the phonologicalrepresentations of deaf people may be moreinaccurate.     

A survey of the appropriateness of instructional language materials used with deaf students.

A questionnaire survey was conducted of the instructional language materials used by educators in programs for deaf and hard of hearing students. The results indicated that over half (51%) of the materials used are not developed specifically for use with deaf students. The majority of the respondents (67%) cited problems finding age- and interest-appropriate materials. Dissatisfaction with current language materials was one reason many educators (60%) made their own materials. Their comments emphasized the need to develop language materials and assessment tools specifically for deaf and hard of hearing students.     

Written language abilities in deaf Italians

Written texts produced by 10 Italian deaf native signers in four different writing tasks were analyzed. Data analysis focused on linguistic and orthographic nonstandard forms. The written production of deaf subjects with deaf parents (DD) was compared to the written production in two control groups: a group of 10 hearing subjects with deaf parents (HD) and a group of 10 subjects who have had no contact with deaf people or sign language (HH). The results duplicate findings from previous studies. Deaf subjects display a pattern of selective difficulty with Italian grammatical morphology, especially with free-standing function words. The four different writing tasks used in the present study yield results indicating that text type does influence our assessment of deaf writing abilities. A comparison of the texts written by deaf native signers with those of two hearing groups confirms the view that difficulties in the acquisition of written Italian are best explained by deafness itself, not by the influence of a previously acquired Sign Language, and that the specific difficulties with grammatical morphology displayed by our deaf subjects cannot be attributed solely to their limited experience with written Italian.     

Modeling the development of written language

Alternative models of the structure of individual and developmental differences of written composition and handwriting fluency were tested using confirmatory factor analysis of writing samples provided by first- and fourth-grade students. For both groups, a five-factor model provided the best fit to the data. Four of the factors represented aspects of written composition: macro-organization (use of top sentence and number and ordering of ideas), productivity (number and diversity of words used), complexity (mean length of T-unit and syntactic density), and spelling and punctuation. The fifth factor represented handwriting fluency. Handwriting fluency was correlated with written composition factors at both grades. The magnitude of developmental differences between first grade and fourth grade expressed as effect sizes varied for variables representing the five constructs: large effect sizes were found for productivity and handwriting fluency variables; moderate effect sizes were found for complexity and macro-organization variables; and minimal effect sizes were found for spelling and punctuation variables.     

Executive function and language in deaf children

The relationship between language and executive function (EF) and their development in children have been the focus of recent debate and are of theoretical and clinical importance. Exploration of these functions in children with a peripheral hearing loss has the potential to be informative from both perspectives. This study compared the EF and language skills of 8- to 12-year-old children with cochlear implants (n = 22) and nonimplanted deaf children (n = 25) with those of age-matched hearing controls (n = 22). Implanted and nonimplanted deaf children performed below the level of hearing children on tests assessing oral receptive language, as well as on a number of EF tests, but no significant differences emerged between the implanted and nonimplanted deaf groups. Language ability was significantly positively associated with EF in both hearing and deaf children. Possible interpretations of these findings are suggested and the theoretical and clinical implications considered.     

近代书写语言的工具性改革——论近代白话语言的提出

近代白话在“言文合一”的要求下,作为宣传维新思想和开启民智的工具被提出,白话报刊积极地实践了这个主张,培养了一批有实际白话写作经验的人才。近代白话的提出也给后人留下了一系列的经验教训。     

聋校语文教学如何培养聋生的审美能力

聋校语文教材中呈现了多姿多彩的审美形态和审美范畴。在教学中要引领学生感受美,启迪学生鉴赏美,鼓励学生体现美。培养和提高聋生的审美能力。