Morpho-Syntactic Characteristics of Turkish and of Turkish Sign Language from the Perspective of Reading Process of Readers with Hearing-Impairment

To be able to understand a text entirely, person second language need to develop both their morphemic and morpho-syntactic awareness. Morphology-which involves the evaluation of the smallest components-aims to ensure not only the understanding of individual components, but also the entire text. Students’ awareness and knowledge of morphemic and morpho-syntactic skills positively affect their awareness and knowledge of phonetics, syntax and semantics. An increasing number of studies are nowadays emphasizing the importance of morphemic and morpho-syntactic awareness that comprise a number of language components in acquiring reading skills. It is known that there is a positive relationship between the adequacy of sign language in readers with hearing- impairment and their ability to acquire literacy skills. It is also known that both languages have their own linguistic rules, and that their interaction positively contributes to the development of literacy skills in individuals with hearing-imparment. For this reason, based on this positive relationship between sign language skills and literacy skills, the learning of literacy skills by children with hearing-impairment should be improved by teaching the morpho-syntactic characteristics of both languages. This review comparatively examines the morphemic and morpho-syntactic characteristics of the Turkish Sign Language (TSL) and Turkish within the frame of reading activities, and with respect to verb agreement and time categories.