https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9740-6853
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ABSTRACT
This qualitative study aimed to identify and analyse reading comprehension strategies used by five deaf adults, 22–47 years old, who were close to complete or had already completed their studies at a higher education institution. The method chosen was a partial replication of the one used by Banner and Wang (Citation2011) in their think-aloud study to describe cognitive and metacognitive reading comprehension strategies use among deaf students and adults. The present study included similar interview questions and think-aloud procedures, which were conducted by a deaf teacher, native user of Chilean Sign Language (LSCh). Participants read informational texts and were interrupted three times during the reading task to answer questions about their cognitive and metacognitive processes. Results showed that these deaf adults can use strategies from all the categories identified by Pressley and Afflerbach (1995): constructing meaning, monitoring and improving comprehension, and evaluating comprehension. Some strategies described in the study from Banner and Wang were observed only in individual cases, and some of them were not used at all. The deaf participants of this study also used some strategies that were not included in some previous studies. Since very few deaf adults in Chile have completed higher education, the information provided by this study could be useful in guiding interventions aimed to improve reading comprehension in elementary, high school, and college DHH students. The relevance of early experiences with reading, and motivational factors associated to reading achievement are discussed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Alex read only one text because the decision to add a second text was taken after his evaluation. The second text was chosen based on the performance on the first text to avoid excessive frustration during the task. Therefore, although two participants read a more difficult text at the beginning, the second text assigned to all was considered of “normal” difficulty. In the case of Sofía, the text was also in the “normal” category but was slightly more difficult than the one read by the others.
2 Strategies marked with * were not included in Banner and Wang (Citation2011) list. Those marked with ** are not on their list but are included in Pressley and Afflerbach (Citation1995).
3 All quotes from the interviews were translated to English by one of the authors. Fingerspelled words are represented using uppercase letters with dashes between each letter.
4 In the Spanish language used in Chile, the expression referred to change a baby’s diapers uses the same verb “mudar” as when a bird moults its feathers.
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Notes on contributors
María Rosa Lissi
María Rosa Lissi, Educational Psychologist from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Master in Deaf Education (Lamar University, Texas, USA), Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (The University of Texas). Full Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. During the past 30 years, she has conducted research on deaf students’ literacy acquisition, reading comprehension, and educational experiences of deaf students in special and regular education settings. She is also interested in the study of learning from the historical-cultural approach, and the educational inclusion of students with special needs, mostly in higher education settings. She is the Director of LECSOR (Language, Education and Deaf Culture) laboratory, at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology.
Maribel González
Maribel González, Educational Psychologist from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Ph.D. in Social Sciences (University of Bristol). Postdoctoral fellow at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. Professor of “Diversity and inclusive education” at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado. During the past 15 years, she has been involved in research on deaf students’ education. Her current research focuses on the role of Deaf educators and the contribution of Deaf Pedagogy in the generation of collaborative and intercultural practices in Deaf education. She is also a researcher of LECSOR (Language, Education and Deaf Culture) laboratory, at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology.
Verónica Escobar
Verónica Escobar, Special education teacher, specialised in teaching deaf students (Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación). She has a Master in Language Sciences, with specialisation in Sign Language and Deaf Studies from University College London (UCL). She is a member of the research team at LECSOR (Language, Education and Deaf Culture) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. She also teaches at Universidad Austral in Chile. At present, she is a graduate student of the Doctoral Program in Linguistics at UCL. Her research interest focuses on linguistic variations in Chilean Sign Language and the way they relate to sociolinguistic factors.
Martín Vergara
Martín Vergara, Currently he is a doctoral assistant at the Institute of Psychology and Education, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. An educational psychologist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he participated in research projects on deaf students’ acquisition of reading comprehension strategies, on epistemic development of pre-service teachers, and on students’ transitions in higher education. His research interests focus on learning, social interactions, and concept development. He is a member of the research team at LECSOR (Language, Education and Deaf Culture) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology.
Camila Villavicencio
Camila Villavicencio, Elementary school teacher from Universidad Católica Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez. She is a deaf woman, and has worked teaching Chilean Sign Language in different private and public institutions. She was a member of the research team at LECSOR (Language, Education and Deaf Culture) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. She has participated on research projects on reading comprehension strategies of deaf students and deaf adults, and studies on the way deaf educators teach Deaf Culture.
Christian Sebastián
Christian Sebastián, Educational Psychologist from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Ph.D. in Psychology (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium). He is an Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology. His research focuses on adult learning and epistemic development from the historical-cultural approach. During last years, he has also developed research on teaching reading comprehension strategies to deaf students and learning processes of young deaf people in educational contexts. He is the Director of the Laboratory of lifelong learning and knowledge construction (LACCOV) at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s School of Psychology.