AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE LITERACY LEVELS OF STUDENTS

This paper presents a synthesis of the research findings of the literacy levels and difficulties of deaf/hardof hearing children and adolescents in the United States, China, and South Korea. After discussing generalachievement levels, we provide a brief introduction to the nature of the three writing systems (English,Chinese, and Korean) to establish an explanatory framework that accounts for the status of the currentliteracy levels. We assert that the three writing systems are designed, at the least, to fit the phonologicalstructures of the languages for which they represent. We also argue that there is a reciprocal, facilitativerelationship between lower-level (e.g., decoding) and higher-level (e.g., comprehension, composing)skills. To establish this reciprocity, children need to develop competence in phonology, specifically,and in other general language components (e.g., morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) ofthe language of print. Many children may also need to learn how to comprehend or compose (e.g., develophigher level metacognitive, inferencing skills).