There has been a growing concern in recent years regarding the inability of lay persons to understand legal language. This concern has generated a movement to rewrite legal documents in "plain English." At both the federal and state levels, laws have been enacted and regulations issued, requiring that automobile insurance policies, warranties, and other legal instruments be written in language that is clear and understandable to the average person. Many of these efforts have been greeted with loud *1307 praise and with confidence that rewriting will alleviate all comprehension problems.

Administered the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to 13 deaf adolescents with deaf parents and to 13 deaf adolescents with hearing parents. Scores achieved by all Ss on the Paragraph Meaning and Language subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test were also available. Ss with deaf parents scored significantly higher than Ss with hearing parents on all but 1 measure. Performance by hearing, foreign students on the TOEFL was more highly correlated with the performance by Ss with deaf parents than with the performance by Ss with hearing parents. Results indicate that English may be a 2nd language for deaf children and that early experience with sign language may facilitate later learning of English. (27 ref)

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The linguistic abilities, cognitive abilities, and educational achievements of the deaf are reviewed. The reviewed indicates three conclusions about the abilities of deaf persons relative to hearing persons: (1) The deaf are not deficient in intellectual competence, thus weaker skills in English and lower educational achievement require other explanations; (2) despite marked deficiencies in using and processing English, a great number of deaf persons can communicate effectively in sign language; (3) similar linguistic abilities underlie effective use of sign language and spoken language, a conclusion supported by analyses of both sign language structure and the acquisition of sign language by young deaf children. Increased use of sign language in educating the deaf is recommended.

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