MODIFICATIONS TO THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST FOR USE WITH SIGNING DEAF STUDENTS

Abstract

The study investigates the feasibility of modifications to the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test for use with deaf students. Previous efforts involved modifications to the test for the purpose of developing deaf norms. This time, however, we have incorporated the use of American Sign Language and a means to allow deaf students’ signed language knowledge to support their test performance. Thus, a cross-linguistic mediation is proposed as an appropriate way of assessing deaf students’ ability to decipher English vocabulary. The oral English vocabulary test subsequently underwent two modifications: 1) word items were converted to print and 2) students were allowed to access a special material to look up and decipher unfamiliar English words. With this modification, ASL sign equivalents are written in a signed language alphabet, thus allowing deaf students to decode them. This process then allows deaf students to identify an individual English word’s meaning and respond accordingly. The preliminary results of our study indicate that elementary-aged students demonstrated improvement in their test performance when they used the special material consistently. In addition, we compared the deaf students’ performance with deaf norms. It appears our participants performed well, and the signed language-based curriculum developed and used with these participants may have played an important role in their modified test performance. Discussion of these findings includes future directions in test developments that include deaf students’ learning written English as a second language.

How to Cite

Cripps, J. H. & Supalla, S. J., (2004) “MODIFICATIONS TO THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST FOR USE WITH SIGNING DEAF STUDENTS”, Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching 11, 93-113.