Examining the Role of Morphological Awareness Skills on the Reading Process from a Developmental Perspective: Evidence from Deaf and Hearing Readers

Abstract

This research is a descriptive study aimed at examining the role of morphological awareness skills of deaf and hearing students on the reading process from a developmental perspective. A total of 141 students (67 deaf and 74 hearing students) from different levels of education (primary school, junior high school, and high school) participated in the research. Morphological awareness knowledge and skills of the research group were evaluated by two independent paradigms: a) morphological sensitivity, and b) morphological awareness paradigms. The data of the study were analyzed using variance analysis (GLM-Anova) and two-factor Manova (GLM-Manova), and the results showed that morphological awareness skills of deaf students were significantly lower than their hearing counterparts in all educational levels. Evidence for the present study is discussed with reference to reflections of poor morphological awareness performances in deaf students to their general reading and reading comprehension processes were discussed in detail.