Abstract
The sources of knowledge that individuals use to make similarity
judgments about words are thought to tap underlying phonological
representations.This study addresses the issue of segmental representation
by investigating bilingual deaf students' (a) awareness of American
Sign Language (ASL) phonological structure; (b) the relationships
between ASL phonological awareness (ASL-PA) and written English
word recognition and reading comprehension skill, and (c) the question
of whether age and/or reading ability would differentially affect
performance on an ASL-PA task in fifty bilingual deaf children (ages
7—T8) attending schools for deaf children in Western Canada. In the
ASL-PA task, minimal contrasts between ASL parameters (handshape,
movement, and location; H, M, and L, respectively) were systematically
manipulated. The results show significant differences in deaf
students'ASL phonological awareness, with discrimination accuracy
improving with age and reading ability. Significant relationships between
children's second language (L2) reading skills and first language
(Li) phonological awareness skills were found. Evidence of rich metahnguistic
knowledge that children with developing Li phonological
skills bring to the acquisition of L2 reading skills may have practical
imphcations for the education of bilingual deaf children.