Abstract

Nonstandard grammatical forms are often present in the writing of deaf students that are rarely if ever, seen in the writing of hearing students. With the implementation of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) in previous studies, students have demonstrated significant gains in high-level writing skills (e.g., text structure) but have also made gains with English grammar skills. This 1-year study expands on prior research by longitudinally examining the written language growth (i.e., writing length, sentence complexity, sentence awareness, and function words) of 29 deaf middle-school students. A repeated-measures analysis of variance with a between-subjects variable for literacy achievement level was used to examine gains over time and the intervention’s efficacy when used with students of various literacy levels. Students, whether high or low achieving, demonstrated statistically significant gains with writing length, sentence complexity, and sentence awareness. Subordinate clauses were found to be an area of difficulty and follow up strategies are suggested. An analysis of function word data, specifically prepositions and articles, revealed different patterns of written language growth by language group (e.g., American Sign Language users, oral students, users of English-based sign). With respect to writing English text that is grammatically accurate and complex, deaf writers are known to demonstrate substantial variability in their writing and, subsequently, have different instructional needs than hearing writers. Nonstandard grammatical forms tend to appear in their writing that are rarely, if ever, produced by hearing students, even in the writing of hearing students with very limited school experience (Fabbretti,Volterra, & Pontecorvo, 1998). This certainly points to the language differences that exist between hearing children