Abstract/Summary

Text comprehension, a daily academic activity at primary and secondary school, is especially challenging for deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) students. The present study was aimed at analysing the effect of text genre (narrative vs. expository) on accuracy and eye movement patterns during the text comprehension of DHH students (age range: 9-15 years) users of oral language as preferred communication mode in relation to a typically hearing (TH) chronological age-matched control group. Results showed that comprehension accuracy was similar across text genres for both groups and that TH participants outperformed DHH participants. Regarding eye movements, both groups spent longer time and made more regressive fixations in the expository than in the narrative text but DHH participants showed longer saccade amplitude in the expository than the narrative text which could be interpreted as evidence of better self-regulation of DHH readers in the easiest and more familiar narrative text structure.