TESOL – 2003 - Baltimore, Maryland Session #2313 Convention Center, Room 320

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Language Background Effects on Deaf Written English

Kathleen Eilers-crandall, Ph.D.National Technical Institute for the DeafRochester Institute of Technology

TESOL – 2003 - Baltimore, MarylandSession #2313

Convention Center, Room 320Thursday, March 27, 2:00 pm to 2:45 pm

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Study Background

In a language diverse classroom, the teacher has little information how previous language experiences are influencing the students' written English.

The teacher does not know the ways students' use of English may be related to the students' first language experiences.

However, the teacher observes that students who have similar scores on English placement tests do not necessarily experience the same success in learning.

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Study - Objective

To determine if there is a relationship between language background factors and written English characteristics of Deaf students who are writing at a basic level

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Language Background

Two groups

ASL Dominant Students

Non ASL Dominant Students

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Students

Criteria – for both groups

1. Born in the U. S. 2. Enrolled in Level A reading and

writing courses3. Deafness onset before 1 year of

age

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ASL Dominant Students

Selection Characteristics based on L/CBQ

Began learning sign at birth Preferred communication mode;

self-rating = Sign Alone Excellent sign skills; self-rating of

sign skill = 5 Less than excellent speech skills;

self-rating of speech skills < 5

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Non ASL Dominant Students

Selection Characteristics based on L/CBQ

1. Did not begin learning sign at birth2. Preferred communication mode; self-

rating = Speech Alone, or, Speech and Sign

3. Excellent or very good speech skills; self-rating = 5 or 4

4. Less than excellent sign skills; self-rating of sign skills < 5

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Student Characteristics

ASL Dominant - Means PTA better ear = 100.8

dB HL Age of deafness onset =

birth Age began learning sign

= birth Sign skill rating = 5 Speech skill rating = 2

Non ASL Dominant - Means PTA better ear = 96.9

dB HL Age of deafness onset = 0.1

year Age began learning sign =

9.9 years Sign skill rating = 3.4 Speech skill rating = 4.4

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Data Collection

Daily journals in response to specific questions/topics

Digitally submitted via Message Board

http://www.rit.edu/~kecncp/discus

http://www.rit.edu/~kecncp/discus

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Message Board

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Message Board – Topic Examples

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Message Board – Entry Examples

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More Entry Examples

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Analyses Conducted

QuantityNumber of wordsNumber of clausesNumber of words per clause

VarietyNumber of unique wordsNumber of unique clause types

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Analysis Process

An MS Word Macro was written to organize samples into one word per line.

These data were transferred into MS Excel Worksheets.

MS Excel contains a unique item filter. This was applied to determine unique words.

Clause analyses were done by hand for the first 500 words.

Visual basic routines were written to count total and unique clause types.

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Vocabulary Analysis Examples

I I

was was

not not

sure sure

about about

that that

and and

i

went went

to to

there. there

Total words: 18

Unique words: 13

I

was

shock shock

that

was

last last

year. year

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Clause Types - Some Examples

s Independent cl. I was in NYC

si ..with infinitive I want to go to NYC

sg … with gerund I enjoy traveling

sig … with inf & ger I hope to enjoy traveling one day

sii … with 2 infs I want to go to see NYC

sgg … with 2 gers I enjoy traveling and meeting people

dav Dep adv cl. I saw the WTC when I was in NYC.

daj Dep adj. cl. I also saw my friend who lives there.

dno Dep noun cl. I hope that I can live in NYC.

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Clause Analysis Examples

I

was

not

sure

about

WTC s+cs

and

I

went

to

there. +cs

I

was

not

believe s+dno

it

was

last

year. +dno

•Independent Clauses = 5•Dependent Clauses = 2•Unique Ind. Types = 4•Unique Dep. Types = 1

I

walk

to

my

TV s+cs

and

I

saw +cs+dno

something

happen

it +dno

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Quantity Analyses

Vocabulary:Number of words used

Grammar:Number of clauses in 500 wordsNumber of independent clausesNumber of dependent clausesNumber of words per clause

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Quantity: Number of Words Used

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

ASL Dominant Students Non ASL Dominant Students

ANOVA: F= 0.180; (p = 0.67); Not significant

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Quantity: Number of Clauses in 500 Words

0102030405060708090

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ASL Dominant Students Non ASL Dominant StudentsANOVA: F= 0.144; (p = 0.71); Not significant

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Quantity: Independent and Dependent Clauses

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

ASL Dominant Students 1 to 6; Non ASL Dominant Students 7 - 14

Nu

mb

er

of

Cla

us

es

DependentClauses

IndependentClauses

[ALL] Ind v. Dep -- ANOVA: F= 202.96; (p = 8.45E-14); Significant

Ind by group -- ANOVA: F = 0.176; (p = 0.68); Not significant

Dep by group -- ANOVA: F = 0.009; (p = 0.93); Not significant

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Quantity: Number of Words per Clause

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00


ANOVA: F= 0.280; (p = 0.61); Not significant

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Variety Analyses

Vocabulary Variety: Number of unique words

Clause Variety: Number of unique independent clause

types Number of unique dependent clause

types

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Unique Words Used in 500, 1000, & 1500 Words: ASL Dominant Students

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

500 Words 1000 Words 1500 Words

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

A6

ANOVA: F= 67.66; (p = 3.11E-08); Significant

26ANOVA: F= 67.66; (p = 3.11E-08); Significant

Unique Words Used in 500, 1000, & 1500 Words: : Non ASL Dominant Students

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

500 Words 1000 Words 1500 Words

N1

N2

N3

N4

N5

N6

N7

N8

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Unique Independent Clause Types

0

5

10

15

20

25


Variety by group – ANOVA: F = 5.34; (p = 0.039); Significant

28Variety by group -- ANOVA: F = 5.56; (p = 0.036); Significant

Unique Single Independent Clause Types

0

1

2

3

4

5


29Variety by group -- ANOVA: F = 7.99; (p = 0.015); Significant

Unique Compound Clause Types

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10


30Variety by group – ANOVA: F = 1.58; (p = 0.23); Not Significant

Unique Dependent Clause Types

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18


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Summary -- Quantity

Overall Significant Differences Both groups used a larger number of unique

vocabulary words in longer samples (213 Unique Words in 500 words, 330 in 1000 words, and 418 in 1500 words).

Both groups used more independent clauses than dependent clauses (Independent Clauses: 56.14; Dependent Clauses: 20.50).

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Summary -- Variety

Significant Differences between Groups Variety of independent clause types

(average = 14.50 in 500 words for ASL Dominant students and 18.37 for Non ASL Dominant students)

Variety of single independent clause types (average = 3.83 in 500 words for ASL Dominant students and 3.13 for Non ASL Dominant students)

Variety of compound clause types (average = 4.17 in 500 words for ASL Dominant students and 6.25 for Non ASL Dominant students)

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Summary – Quantity & Variety

No Significant Differences between Groups

Quantity:1. Number of words used in 50 journal entries 2. Number of clauses in 500 words3. Number of words per clause 4. Number of independent clauses used in 500

words5. Number of dependent clauses used in 500 words

Variety:1. Unique words used in 500, 1000, 1500 words2. Unique dependent clauses used in 500 words

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Discussion

How do these results compare to the writing of native speakers of English?

What about appropriateness of vocabulary items?

What about the frequency of specific types of independent and dependent clauses?

What about grammatical acceptability for clause types?

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Presenter

Kathleen Eilers Crandall, Ph.D.Department of English

National Technical Institute for the DeafRochester Institute of Technology Lyndon Baines Johnson Building - 2264

Phone: (585) 475-5111

Fax: (585) 475-6500

Email: [email protected]

Web: http://www.rit.edu/~kecncp

TESOL – 2003 - Baltimore, Maryland Session #2313 Convention Center, Room 320

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