Intervention Study to Improve Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students Morphosyntax Production in Single Sentences and Connected Language

Abstract

Through a non-traditional approach, the author completed this dissertation with the following components: 1) an introduction to the problem examined, 2) a literature review, 3) a manuscript prepared for submission to a peer reviewed journal, and 4) a reflection of her experiences completing doctoral studies during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. Although the pandemic changed the process to complete this dissertation, the research began prior to and persisted throughout the pandemic to examine the effect a systematically organized morphosyntax intervention on deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students’ production of English single sentences and connected language. The author begins by introducing the barriers DHH students face when accessing morphosyntax knowledge (Chapter 1). In the next chapters, the paucity of morphosyntactical interventions for deaf and hard of hearing students (Chapter 2) provides a rationale for the study described in the following chapter (Chapter 3). The final chapter (Chapter 4) is in the format of a lesson plan, describing the author’s educational experiences while reflecting on her journey as a student, researcher, administrator, and mother to complete the requirements of her doctoral program.