Using Miscue Analysis to Assess Comprehension in Deaf College Readers

Abstract

For over 30 years, teachers have used miscue analysis as a tool to assess and evaluate the reading abilities of hearing students in elementary and middle schools and to design effective literacy programs. More recently, teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing students have also reported its usefulness for diagnosing word- and phrase-level reading difficulties and for planning instruction. To our knowledge, miscue analysis has not been used with older, college-age deaf students who might also be having difficulty decoding and understanding text at the word level. The goal of this study was to determine whether such an analysis would be helpful in identifying the source of college students' reading comprehension difficulties. After analyzing the miscues of 10 college-age readers and the results of other comprehension-related tasks, we concluded that comprehension of basic grade school-level passages depended on the ability to recognize and comprehend key words and phrases in these texts. We also concluded that these diagnostic procedures provided useful information about the reading abilities and strategies of each reader that had implications for designing more effective interventions.

Academic Outcomes for School-Aged Children With Severe–Profound Hearing Loss and Early Unilateral and Bilateral Cochlear Implants

“…Literacy development in children with severe-profound hearing loss has historically been poor, with reports of many children unable to read beyond fourth-grade elementary level (Geers et al, 2008;Moeller et al, 2007), and 30% of children functionally illiterate when they graduate from secondary school (Traxler, 2000). Even very recent studies of university students with hearing loss, who are presumably among students with the best academic outcomes, have revealed that reading abilities in this population are still below the sixth grade level (Albertini & Mayer, 2011;Parault & Williams, 2010). It has been documented that reading development in many children with hearing loss plateaus at Chall's stage three (Marschark & Harris, 1996), resulting in ongoing difficulties with 'reading to learn', and a lack of ability to use both top-down and bottom-up processing, all of which reduce comprehension and the ability to acquire new knowledge.…”

Addressing the big picture: Deaf children and reading assessments

“…These students cannot be assessed using an English‐based assessment that does not take into consideration the differences between ASL and English. To further compound on the differences in languages, students who use both spoken English and ASL signs tend to show struggles in modifying sentence structures (Albertini & Mayer, ).…”

“…This approach, while not widely used, has been shown to provide a more authentic representation of Deaf children's reading abilities (Luft, ). The use of miscue analysis also provides information to identify specific areas of reading which are impacting the students’ ability to comprehend text (Albertini & Mayer, ).…”

“…Possibly due to the differences between ASL and English, it has been found that Deaf students typically bypass syntax and move directly to meaning while reading (Ewoldt, ), leading to the need for educators to verify whether the student is applying the correct meaning to the passage. There is a correlation between word deviations and comprehension (Albertini & Mayer, ), suggesting that educators need to frequently check for comprehension as well as word recognition.…”

“…In that vein, Luft's () recommendation was to disregard coordinating conjunctions and parts of speech that are not seen in ASL syntax, as the continued marking of such items do not show comprehension of text, but rather comprehension of translating between ASL and English. Students who make attempts to switch between English and ASL while translating text show more errors on miscue analysis as well as running records (Albertini & Mayer, ). The correlation shows that there is not a direct word‐for‐word translation available between English and ASL; to successfully translate text between English and ASL, the student first needs a strong foundation in both languages.…”