10 Things You Should Know about Reading

Vocabulary and Students with Hearing Loss

Dr. Susan EasterbrooksProfessor, GSU

Dr. Nanci ScheetzProfessor, VSU

First, some startling statistics…

• The median DHH student graduates high school reading

somewhere around a 4th grade level.

• After achieving a late 2nd/early 3rd grade level, DHH students

gain approximately 3/10 of a grade level per year in reading

ability.

• Estimates on the percent of 18 year old DHH students who

read on grade level upon graduation range between 3 and

10% .

I. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing typically come

to school with an impoverished vocabulary when compared

to children who can hear.

Hearing Children before kindergarten will

have heard:

45,000,000 words – College Educated

Families

26,000,000 words – Working Class

Families

13,000,000 words – Lower Socio-

Economic Families (Knoell, 2005).

Many children with

hearing loss do

have access to

a rich vocabulary

until a) someone

starts signing with

them, b) they get

their first hearing

aids, or c) they

start school.

Exposure to Language:

Hearing Children

Exposure to Language

Deaf Children

World Knowledge

Words and

grammar that represent

the ideas

Ideas about the world

Ability to read

the words and

make sense

Labels

Do you remember this

pyramid from a

previous

presentation?

This means that they

struggle with the bottom

two sections of the

pyramid. It is a

concept and

language problem

for most, rather

than a reading

problem,

per se.

II. You need to determine where on the pyramid your student is experiencing

problems.

Here’s an example. Read the following, define the words, explain what it means (OK, you math wizards…give the rest of us a chance to figure it out!)

““There are only 10 kinds of people in There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”binary and those who don’t.”

Hmmmmm…Let’s analyze this

Can you decode all these words?

Do you know what the following words mean? 10, People, Understand, Binary, Those?

Can you phrase this correctly? Can you read it at an appropriate words per minute?

* So you have all the “pieces,” but you still don’t have text comprehension! This is because you don’t have the two bottom pieces of the pyramid.

• Activating prior knowledge: What does 10

represent in the binary system?

– This will help you figure out the answer

• For children with hearing loss, you cannot

access a prior knowledge system if they do

not have that information in their system.

III. Students with hearing loss have problems at all

the layers of vocabulary knowledge.

– “Listening” (basic) vocabulary

– Grammar • You cannot read English that you do not understand.

– Sight word recognition

– Retention• Working memory is overtaxed when children read word for word.

– Multiple Meanings

– Idioms and other figures of speech• Can understand these but are 3-4 years delayed. The amount of

figurative language in print material is overwhelming.

– The language of testing

IV. Teach students with hearing loss a

broader vocabulary.5 year-old hearing children are able to speak about 1500-2000 and understand 2500-3000 words. Their sentences contain of 5-8 words. They also can almost tell a story with accuracy.

5 year-old children…

…who are severely to profoundly deafseverely to profoundly deaf may come to school with a vocabulary as limited as a few words. They may not use complete sentences.

…who are hard of hearing or have moderate losseshard of hearing or have moderate losses may come to school with a vocabulary nearer to the average, but many have significant deficits.

Vocabulary tends to fall across a limited range of conceptual categories. Words having to do with objects, actions, and ideas outside a child’s realm of first-hand experience are limited.

clothing

food and drink

food and drink animals

basic action verbs

basic action verbsvehicles

placesplaces

body parts

body parts useful it

ems

peoplepeople

They know generic labelsgeneric labels (bird, car, shoes) but not examples of the category (parakeet, SUV, sneakers)

Work with the SLP and TOD to help your student develop a broader vocabulary.

– Why? Because children learn to decode known wordsdecode known words more readily than unknown words.

– Because vocabulary knowledge is the single best predictorbest predictor of ease of learning to read.

V. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing need a deeper

vocabulary: Multiple meanings

• Both depthdepth and breadth are issues for students with

hearing loss.

– May know the primary definition, but often lack second and third

definitions.

RunRun

His allergy to cats made

his nose run.

He ran down the street.

He ran the meeting efficiently.

The play had a long run.

He ran on and on.

VI. Students with hearing loss need to know

figures of speech

Examples found in 1Examples found in 1stst grade books grade books

• Verb idioms The jet will run out of gas.

I washed them off.

He worked to help the cars get by.

• Idiomatic expressions Time was running low.

• Personification Triceratops was a skateboard champ.

• Hyperbole “Nobody ever helps me”, said the mouse.

• Litotes I wanted to blow up my sea horse…

Grandma helped a little.

• Alliteration The Great Gray Goose gathered her goslings.

Examples found in 3rd grade booksExamples found in 3rd grade books

Verb idioms Mirette worked up the courage to speak.

…but it did not wake up!

Idiomatic expressions That man had the nerves of an iceberg.

Personification Please teach me. My feet are already unhappy on the ground.

Hyperbole They tried everything under the sun, but nothing seemed to work.

Litotes She jumped up on the wire, but in a moment she was back on the ground.

• When teaching figurative expressions, especially idioms, teach the accurate semantic meaning. Do not spend time on drawings or pictures of the false meaning.

E.g., You’re pulling my leg.

Deaf children are visually oriented and will want to retain the amusing figure rather than the actual meaning.

“You’re pulling my leg” means “you’re teasing me.”

Here’s a good book to use to talk about the concept of teasing.Here’s a good book to use to talk about the concept of teasing.

VII. Deaf students benefit from semantic

approaches to vocabulary development.

• Semantic mapping

• Context-based approaches

• Concept-based approaches

• Fairview Program

• THE least effective approach for teaching vocabulary THE least effective approach for teaching vocabulary

to deaf children is to have them look up a book in the to deaf children is to have them look up a book in the

dictionary, copy the definition, and write a sentence.dictionary, copy the definition, and write a sentence.

Semantic Mapping• The teacher writes a word that represents the key concept.

• The student think of words that relate to the key word.

• These words are grouped around the key word in categories.

• The teacher presents new words and encourages a discussion

about where these words might fit into the map.

(Duffelmeyer & Banwart, 1993; Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986;

Johnson, Pittelman, &Heimlich, 1986)

Here is an example of a semantic map for the solar system

Context-Based Approach

• Youngsters ultimately need to encounter a word in context to develop a full sense of its meaning (Gipe, 1980; Gipe & Arnold, 1979).

• Guessing vocabulary from context is the most frequent context is the most frequent

way to discover the meaningway to discover the meaning of new words.

• Go to these websites to search for specific vocabulary in different children’s books. The more examples the student reads, the more rich his contextual base.

Steps for exploring context (Blachowicz &

Fisher,1996)

1st - Look before, at, and after the word.

2nd- Connect what they know to what the author has written.

3rd- Predict a possible meaning.

4th- Resolve or re-do. Decide if they know enough, should try

again, or consult an expert or reference.

Concept-Based Approach

• Concept-based approaches are grounded on the assumption that new knowledge is gained from finding new relationships in new relationships in old knowledgeold knowledge and from relating new information to old knowledge. (Schirmer, 2000)

– Approaches• Expansion maps

• Distancing

• Expanded Frayer Model

Expansion mapsDevelop a semantic map, then have students brainstorm other connections.

The basic map designed by students (old relationships) is blue. Expansions by the

teacher (new relationships) are yellow.

IHOP short stack

horseride

farm

carriage

carcar

saddlesaddle

pigspigscowscows

barnbarn

CinderellaCinderella

Amish

Sounds like “hoarse”

sore throatsore throat

expressions

Horse of a different colorHorse of a different color

Horse aroundHorse around

expressions

To be saddled (burdened) with…To be saddled (burdened) with…

Get back in the saddle (try again after a failure)Get back in the saddle (try again after a failure)

Pigs in blankets

• Distancing

– Distancing is a conversational approach to expanding conceptsconversational approach to expanding concepts

into the student’s real world.

• Ask questions about a concept in the book.

• Relate to the student’s person life.

• Relate to your life.

– Example conversation

Look on this page. It says, “Her fear was

like a cloud casting it’s shadow on all she

had done.” We talked about what that means

yesterday. Have you ever felt that way?

Yes. I try try very hard. Study.

Prepare for academic bowl.

Nervous.

That’s a great example. Once when I was

entering a contest with my dog, we practiced

and practices, but I was so nervous and afraid

that I just knew we were going to mess up. It

made me feel dark. Like a shadow was over me.

The doctor tell my Mom, you have bad xray.

Come back. Mom was shadow over her. But

now Mom OK.

Whew!

I’m

glad.

Expanded Frayer Model

Frayer, D., Frederick, W. C., and Klausmeier, H. J. (1969). A Schema for Testing the Level of Cognitive Mastery.

Madison, WI: Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

• Begins with the Frayer Model but expand words out three levels:

– Multiple meanings

– Free association

– Figurative language

                                                                         

               

jolt

Sudden jerky motion

unexpected

shocking

quick

The car

started with

a jolt.

Stop “The policeman jolt

the car.”

Shake “I jolt the

mixture.”

To jar with a quick, hard blow.

A sudden feeling of shock,

surprise, or disappointment.

A

small,

potent

portion

Sudden emotion

accident

Cro

wds

of p

eopl

e

Jolt of ja

va

Jostled and jolted

Jolt out o

f the blue

The Fairview Learning Program: A semantically-based

program developed for students with hearing loss. • Provides direct access to ASL and opens

a window for hearing and deaf people

to begin to think and sign bilingually. (Fairview Learning Network)

• Currently used in 42 states

Fairview Continued…

• The Bridge Lists & The Bridging Process

– The bridge lists are English phrases requiring ASL English phrases requiring ASL

translation for understandingtranslation for understanding.

– Example: “Down the street” requires multiple requires multiple

sign conceptssign concepts, depending on the context.

• “A ball was hit down the street”

• “A man walked down the street.”

Example: How would you teach the multiple meaning of the word “of”?

Through context!!!!

A measure of somethingA measure of something

a lb. of (what) ………

cheese, chocolate, nails

a bag of (what) …….

peanuts, clothespins

a box of (what) …….

dishes, cereal, rice

a book of (what) …..

matches, addresses

years of (what) …… deprivation, growth

Talking about somethingTalking about something LocationLocation

a story of (about) survival North of (where) the lake.

A book of (about) names In the middle of (where)

the forest

A tale of (about) two cities. FromFrom

The case of (about) the The Duchess of York.

missing pen.

CauseCause BeforeBefore

Died of a heart attack Quarter of three

VIII. Deaf students benefit from morphographemic

vocabulary instruction.

• What is a morphograph?

• Based on morphemes (word parts):

– Root words- dog, car, at, on, just

– Bound morphemes (affixes)

• Prefixes (un, re, dis)

• Suffixes (ly, ment, s, ness)

• Students learn word meanings by first writing parts of words (graphemes) and then by analyzing their meaning.

Morphographic analysis is effective with deaf students

because:• The patterns of letters are visually mediated and are thus available to the

deaf student. You see and sign them, not necessarily say them.

• Morphographic correspondence in English is more stable and therefore more reliable than graphophonemic correspondence.

• Ability to apply syntactic knowledge to decoding text is highly correlated with comprehension performance of good readers who are deaf (Kelly, 1995).

• Skilled readers who are deaf pay attention to form features of English text more so than poor readers.

• Strong evidence exists for the role of a large vocabulary in reading proficiency, and manipulation of morphological forms is critical to development of more advanced vocabulary.

• Spellings derived from morphographic analysis are more stable than spelling from phonic analysis.

• http://www.strugglingreaders.com/html/GA122.htm

IX. One of the best ways to improve reading

vocabulary is to read to and read with a

student.• Read to and read with children with hearing losses as

often as possible.

– This mimics the reading exposure that hearing children receive from their parents.

– Use standard children’s literature.

-Use materials developed specifically for children who are deaf and

hard of hearing.

Allow the student to view text to ASL renderings of stories• Sundance/Newbridge accessible textsSundance/Newbridge accessible texts

• Gallaudet’s Shared Reading storiesGallaudet’s Shared Reading stories http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/srp/bookbags.html

X. Interpreters need to use conceptually

accurate signs.

Made I made my bed.

I made money.

My brother made me do that.

The rain made the grass green.

I made a present for you.

Each of these uses is represented by a different sign. If you sign the

generic sign for “make”, this will not support concept development.

I. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing typically come to school with an impoverished vocabulary when compared to children who can hear.

II. You need to determine where on the reading pyramid your student is experiencing problems.

III. Students with hearing loss have problems at all the layers of vocabulary knowledge.

IV. Teach students with hearing loss a broader vocabulary.

V. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing need a deeper vocabulary: Multiple meanings

VI. Students with hearing loss need to know figures of speech

VII. Deaf students benefit from semantic approaches to vocabulary instruction.

VIII. Deaf students benefit from morphographemic vocabulary instruction.

IX. One of the best ways to improve reading vocabulary is to read to and read with a student.

X. Interpreters need to use conceptually accurate signs.

Resources and Materials

www.buttepublications.com

www.linguisystems.com

http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu