Journal des troubles de la communication, des études sur les sourds et des aides auditives
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The Relationship between Elementary Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students’ Writing Performance and Writing Motivation

Kimberly A Wolbers, Hannah M Dostal, Kelsey Holton, Joan Weir and Alaa Alsabei

This study is in response to the lack of research that exists related to the role of motivation in the writing development and achievement of deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) students. We investigated whether demographic and language variables were associated with writing motivation among 76 third through fifth grade d/hh elementary students, and whether motivation for personal narrative, information report and persuasive writing was related to writing performance in the same genres. Demographic variables such as gender, age, and hearing level, and the language variable of American Sign Language receptive skills, did not show an association with writing motivation measured by the Situated Writing Activity and Motivation Scale. Knowledge of English, however, showed a weak to moderate positive correlation with motivation. In a simple linear regression model, English was a statistically significant predictor of motivation across all genres. There was also a statistically significant relationship between motivation for writing personal narratives and one’s performance in the genre, yet an association was not found between motivation for information report and persuasive writing and performance in the same genres.