The Relationship between ASL Fluency and English Literacy

Abstract

For years, researchers have sought to understand the literacy development of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. This chapter investigates the history of research exploring the connections between ASL and English literacy skills. Beginning in the 1990s, a number of articles were published arguing for and/or identifying a relationship between American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency and reading proficiency in English (e.g., Goldin-Meadow & Mayberry, 2001; Hoffmeister, 2000; Kuntze, 1998; Strong & Prinz, 1997). Hoffmeister et al. (2014) proposed a theoretical, data-driven model building upon the notion that DHH learners who use ASL or another natural-signed language as their first language (L1) could draw upon their L1 proficiency to support their ability to read and write in their second language (L2). This theoretical model has influenced more recent work confirming the importance of ASL for reading comprehension (Scott & Hoffmeister, 2017), writing (Scott & Hoffmeister, 2018; Wolbers, Bowers, Dostal, & Graham, 2014), and emergent literacy skills (Allen, 2015; Wolsey, Clark & Andrews, 2018). This has led to a growing body of research that can be drawn upon for designing instruction for bilingual DHH students, as well as for continuing to explore the connections between language(s) and literac(ies) for DHH students.