In order to spell fluently and accurately, phonology, orthography, and morphology must be integrated and stored into long term memory (Berninger & Richards, in press; Berninger, Nagy, Tanimoto, Thompson, Abbott, 2015). Children with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and OWL-LD have specific deficits in linguistic processing that impede the cross-mapping of these linguistic elements. This study analyzes the frequency and nature of spelling errors produced by children with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and OWL-LD during an academic writing task in order to determine if known deficits in linguistic processing affect the type and severity of spelling errors made by these children. The present study analyzed error severity and frequency of spelling errors produced by children with dysgraphia (n=13), dyslexia (n=17), or OWL-LD (n=5) during the academic writing tasks obtained in the Berninger et al. (2015) study. In the previous study, students read or listened to computerized lessons about basic mathematical concepts and then typed summaries of what they learned. For the current study, all spelling errors made during the typed summary writing tasks were extracted and analyzed using the Phonological, Orthographic, Morphological Assessment of Spelling (POMAS) and then recoded with POMplexity (a measure of error severity) to determine the severity and frequency of spelling errors made in the linguistic categories of phonology, orthography, and morphology. Results indicated that the students did not differ in error severity by diagnostic category. However, a qualitative analysis using the POMAS revealed that children from different diagnostic categories produced different types of errors. With respect to error frequency, only students with dysgraphia made significantly fewer errors than students with OWL-LD, and all participants, regardless of diagnostic category produced more errors in typed summaries following the reading condition. These results are consistent with previous research indicating that children with learning disabilities do not produce deviant spelling errors when compared to typically-developing, age-matched peers or typically-developing, spelling-matched peers (Silliman, Bahr, and Peters, 2006, among others). The current results demonstrate that the spelling errors of children with learning disabilities reflect the expected linguistic breakdowns in cross-code mapping, and that children with learning disabilities may display these spelling deficits beyond an appropriate age.

Lese- und Schriftsprachkompetenzen zu erwerben ist eine Herausforderung für gehörlose Schüler und gleichzeitig eine zentrale Voraussetzung für einen erfolgreichen Bildungsweg. Innerhalb des auditiv-verbalen Paradigmas der Gehörlosenpädagogik werden die Schwierigkeiten in der Schriftsprache auf die hörschädigungsbedingte Einschränkung der phonologischen Rekodierungsfähigkeit zurückgeführt. Die Pädagogische Unterrichtsforschung zeigt jedoch, dass bilinguale gehörlose Schüler mit Gebärdensprache als Erstsprache oft über gute Schriftsprachkompetenzen verfügen. Bis dato liegen jedoch nur vereinzelt Studien zur Schriftsprachentwicklung bei bilingualen gehörlosen Schülern vor. Die vorliegende Studie fasst dieses Desiderat ins Auge und untersucht über einen Zeitraum von fünf Jahren (Kl. 5-9) Aspekte der Syntax- und Morphologieentwicklung im Schriftspracherwerb bei sechs bilingualen gehörlosen Realschülern. Das Ziel der Studie ist, Erkenntnisse über Sprachlernprozesse in diesem besonderen Schriftzweitspracherwerb zu gewinnen und dieses Wissen für einen entwicklungsorientierten Sprachförderansatz methodisch aufzubereiten. Die Untersuchung wird durch Bezugnahme auf die Zweitspracherwerbstheorie Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann 1998; Pienemann/ Di Biase/ Kawaguchi 2005) fundiert. Im Fokus stehen die Untersuchungsbereiche Wortstellungserwerb, Erwerb der Subjekt/ Verb-Kongruenz und Erwerb des Verbalkasus. Die Datenanalyse zeigt, dass gehörlose Schüler, mit einer Gebärdensprache als Erstsprache, die Schriftsprache in den gleichen grammatischen Entwicklungsschritten erwerben, wie hörende Schüler, die Deutsch mündlich als Zweitsprache lernen. Die Ergebnisse bieten einen differenzierten Einblick in die Sprachlernprozesse der gehörlosen Schüler und erkennen in der Berücksichtigung von Entwicklungssequenzen eine wertvolle Ressource für die Schriftsprachförderung. Aus den Ergebnissen wird ein Konzept zur Förderung des Schriftzweitspracherwerbs abgeleitet, welches auch zwei Analyseraster als Instrumente für eine förderdiagnostische Sprachstandsermittlung beinhaltet. / Learning to read and write is a challenge for deaf students – but a major goal of schooling. Deaf student’s reading and writing problems have always been seen as a consequence of their hearing loss, overlooking the fact that there are deaf adults using a sign language as their first language and show good reading abilities and written-language skills. In Germany, research on bilingual school programs shows that deaf students progress successfully in learning written German from print forms. Current theories of second language acquisition do not discuss the possibility of learning a language exclusively from print exposure. This study is a pioneer attempt to investigate the acquisition of written German by deaf secondary students in order to advance our understanding of written language learning as second language learning. Empirically, this analysis consists of longitudinal data of 6 bilingual deaf students who learn German as a written language in secondary school. On the basis of a 5 years’ data collection based on written narratives, developmental patterns are investigated and analyzed within the paradigm of Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998; Pienemann/ Di Biase/ Kawaguchi 2005). Objects of investigation are word order, subject/ verb-agreement and case system in verbal arguments. The results show that deaf students acquire German written language via print in the same developmental stages as hearing individuals learn oral German in second language acquisition. The deaf students’ interlanguage shows that written language can be processed by language processing procedures of second language acquisition. Individual variations in the developmental process are discussed within the specific learning conditions of deaf students. Regarding the results, a development-orientated teaching concept is recommended, that draws attention on implicit language learning. Two screenings for language development diagnoses are designed and proposals for practical intervention are made in teaching German literacy as a second language to bilingual deaf students.