College
College of Education and Human Services
Department
Exceptional, Deaf, and Interpreter Education
Rank
Assistant Professor
Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students
Type of Work
Journal Article
Publication Information
Kilpatrick, J. R. & Wolbers, K. (2020). Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students. Psychology in Schools, 57(459-474). https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22289
Description of Work
Deaf students often differ from their hearing peers in written language development. Providing developmentally appropriate instruction is ideal, yet current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the written language (i.e., syntactic) development of deaf students. In this research, we use a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach to language analysis to provide teachers with a new way to evaluate deaf students’ writing. This project consisted of two studies. The first study focused on determining whether SFG analysis could be helpful for teachers of the deaf. The second study focused on mapping a trajectory of the written language development of deaf students and the development of written language inventory for teachers of the deaf. This inventory, along with additional evaluation tools, has the potential to impact both objective setting and instruction.
Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students
Deaf students often differ from their hearing peers in written language development. Providing developmentally appropriate instruction is ideal, yet current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the written language (i.e., syntactic) development of deaf students. In this research, we use a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach to language analysis to provide teachers with a new way to evaluate deaf students’ writing. This project consisted of two studies. The first study focused on determining whether SFG analysis could be helpful for teachers of the deaf. The second study focused on mapping a trajectory of the written language development of deaf students and the development of written language inventory for teachers of the deaf. This inventory, along with additional evaluation tools, has the potential to impact both objective setting and instruction.
Biographical Statement
Jennifer Renée Kilpatrick is an assistant professor in Deaf Education at University of North Florida. She has taught deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students, as well as students with varying exceptionalities, in Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida in a variety of settings, including in resource classrooms, inclusion settings, and residential schools for the deaf. Her research focuses on deaf education teacher preparation, professional development for the teachers of the deaf, and the language and literacy development of DHH students.