Deaf Individuals’ Bilingual Abilities: American Sign Language Proficiency, Reading Skills, and Family Characteristics

Brittany L Freel,Gizelle L Gilbert,Melissa L Anderson,M Diane Clark,Millicent M Musyoka,Peter C Hauser

doi:10.4236/psych.2011.21003

Abstract

The current study investigated the bilingual abilities of 55 Deaf individuals, examining both American Sign Language (ASL) competency and English reading skills. Results revealed a positive relationship between ASL competency and English skills, with highly competent signers scoring higher on a measure of reading comprehension. Additionally, family characteristics (e.g., parental education level, family hearing status) were entered into the analysis to ascertain their effect on Deaf individuals’ bilingual abilities. The findings support the theory that competency in ASL may serve as a bridge to the acquisition of English print. Moreover, the findings provide support for the critical period hypothesis for first language acquisition and its later impact on other cognitive and academic skills.

Highlights

Deaf readers tend to lag behind their hearing peers, with the average reading level commonly pinpointed at the fourth grade (Allen, 2002; Conrad, 1979; Marschark & Harris, 1996; Musselman, 2000). Mayer and Wells’ (1996) rationale for this delay is that American Sign Language (ASL) cannot serve as the bridge to English literacy
Data screening indicated the presence of no outliers
What is the relationship between ASL proficiency and reading skills? Second, how do family characteristics impact bilingual abilities? The first hypothesis, which predicted a significant positive relationship between a measure of ASL proficiency and a measure of reading skills, was supported

Summary

Introduction

Deaf readers tend to lag behind their hearing peers, with the average reading level commonly pinpointed at the fourth grade (Allen, 2002; Conrad, 1979; Marschark & Harris, 1996; Musselman, 2000). Mayer and Wells’ (1996) rationale for this delay is that American Sign Language (ASL) cannot serve as the bridge to English literacy. Mayer and Wells’ (1996) rationale for this delay is that American Sign Language (ASL) cannot serve as the bridge to English literacy. They posit that deaf students cannot use ASL grammatical knowledge to transition between ASL and written English, because there is no written form of ASL (Mayer & Akamatsu, 1999). For deaf individuals who use ASL, written English cannot be directly mapped back to ASL. Due to the lack of direct mapping between visual ASL and written English, deaf individuals often utilize their knowledge of ASL structure as a guide for entry to text (Evans, 1998)

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