The role of syntax in hearing-impaired students reading written language

• Main Authors: Han-Ying Chang, 張菡穎
• Other Authors: Hwa-wei Ko
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/87387428589374482987

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 學習與教學研究所 === 96 === The reading achievement of hearing-impaired is inferior to same aged listeners. It is a very positive phenomenon across literatures. Actually there are two groups of hearing-impaired students. One who signs at home, and sign language is one’s mother tongue. The other one who is taught to communicate by oral and signs less. The last group will be named oral group in this study. It is assumed when a hearing-impaired child grown up with sign language to read books is like an EFL student learn to read English texts（Wilcox, 1999）. Based on this hypothesis, this research will probe the role of syntax on hearing-impaired who reads written language, for syntax is the back bone of texts. Study 1 adopted the paradigm of interference by posing sign language grammar and written syntax to both sign and oral hearing-impaired students. Their job is to express correct grammar of articles with either sign grammar or written syntax. Study 2 is to follow study one, but to enhance the difficulty of grammar to further prove the role of syntax on reading. The findings showed that both study results did not match our assumption. This research assumes that written language is the foreign language for sign group students, and sign language is the foreign language for oral group students. It needs further research to clarify why. However, the interference of syntax and the reading comprehension scores of two groups both have a significantly negative correlation. That reveals the syntax influence on reading understanding. Application of the result for teaching and learning is detailed in the study.