Developing expressive language skills of deaf students through specialized writing instruction.

This article examines the impact of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI), an instructional framework designed to develop deaf students' expressive (spoken or signed) and written language skills across three genres: recount, information report, and persuasive. In a quasi-experimental study involving 16 teachers and 69 deaf students in grades 3–6, SIWI was found to significantly improve students' use of genre-specific traits in expressive language and writing for recount and information report genres, but not for persuasive compositions. Additionally, moderate positive correlations were observed between students' expressive language and writing abilities across all genres, highlighting the interconnection between language development and literacy. The study underscores the importance of aligning teacher–student communication modes and suggests further research and professional development focused on signed language composing to enhance literacy outcomes for deaf students.