Jenny L. Singleton
Vocabulary Use by Low, Moderate, and High ASL-Proficient Writers Compared to Hearing ESL and Monolingual Speakers
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
written english vocabulary 72 deaf elementary school students various proficiency levels american sign language asl compared performance 60 hearing englishasasecondlanguage esl speakers 61 hearing monolingual speakers english similar age students asked retell tortoise hare story previously viewed video writing activity writing samples later scored total number words use words known highly frequent childrens writing redundancy writing use english function words deaf writers showed significantly lower use function words compared hearing peers lowaslproficient students demonstrated highly formulaic writing style drawing mostly highfrequency words repetitive use limited range function words moderate highaslproficient deaf students writing formulaic incorporated novel lowfrequency vocabulary communicate thoughts moderate highasl students performance revealed departure findings one might expect based previous studies deaf writers vocabulary use writing deaf writers also differed writing hearing esl speakers implications deaf education literacy instruction discussed special attention fact aslproficient deaf secondlanguage learners english may approaching english vocabulary acquisition ways different hearing esl learners