An attempt was made to investigate the hypothesis that deaf pre-college students could learn English more effectively by using a curriculum described in mathematical terms and notations where possible. An evaluation of materials based on structural linguistics was made; 56 subjects in the experimental group who used the first version of the curriculum were compared to 56 students in a control group. It was found that while the materials could be learned, there was little transfer to reading or writing. The logic of transformational generative grammar was also used with 174 students. It was not possible, however, to demonstrate experimentally the added value of the transformational generative grammar curriculum. (KN)