The Comparison of the Morphological and Syntactic Awareness Skills of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Regarding Agreement and Tense Categories that Exist in Verbs in Reading Activities with those of Students Without Hearing Disabilities

Abstract

The difficulties in learning skills that deaf and hard of hearing students encounter stem from morphology and syntactic morphology (morpho-syntax) and it is clear that there are limited studies related to these. In this study, it is aimed at examining hearing and deaf and hard of hearing students’ morpho-syntactic actions which are compatible with the Turkish Sign Language and the awareness skills of these actions in the time categories. In total 122 students; 57 deaf and hard of hearing students from secondary and high school and 65 hearing students have participated this study. The data is gathered through DMASTR and SuperLab 5 software programs where data is collected by a process with a “word reading method” and “an inclusion of agreement and tense categories in actions”. In the outcome of the study it is identified that students hard of hearing had an underachievement in the agreement and tense categories compared to hearing students. At the agreement category, in terms of reading duration it is seen that deaf students’ verbs with disagreement compared with verbs with agreement, they read faster. In the tense category, it is clear that deaf and hard of hearing students’ accuracy rate of reading words have got similarities in the categories of past and future tenses whereas they have got inadequacies in the present tense, when the data is observed in terms of the speed of reaction and reading duration, it is seen that they are more successful in the past tense. In accordance with these findings, it is indicated that hard of hearing students have shared the same reading skills with their hearing peers whereas they had plenty of difficulties related to reading skills some of them which are from the fields of morphology and syntactic morphology, in the steps of formal education.