Presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Presentation - Essay Example Several studies have also demonstrated that the development of vocabulary knowledge early in school influences reading comprehension skills later in life. Since the founding of the first school for deaf students in the U.S. in 1817, literacy has been a primary educational goal for the deaf. Many different communication approaches such as oral/auditory communication, total communication, and bilingual/bicultural communication have been used in the pursuit of this goal. Despite almost 200 years of attention, DHH students are still leaving school with language skills that are grossly underdeveloped and, in many cases, are not even achieving functional literacy. This study focuses on the research question of what serves effectively to improve deaf students’ acquisition of new reading vocabulary in the third grade. A questionnaire was designed to gather teachers’ views on the most effective approaches that enable students to achieve greater academic success in building vocabulary: oral/auditory communication, total communication, or bilingual/bicultural