This paper discusses the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in an English-as-a-Second-Language approach to teaching reading and writing skills to deaf students. The paper poses and answers the following theoretical and practical questions: (1) What is the nature of first language reading? (2) What is the nature of second language reading? (3) What is the relationship between reading and writing? (4) Is inner speech (i.e., phonological coding) important for reading comprehension? (5) What role can ASL play in the teaching of literacy skills? (6) Is the use of only ASL sufficient for the development of reading and writing? Three models of the reading process, namely, the text-based, reader-based, and interactive approaches, are described. Interactive social-cognitive theories are then applied to second language reading. The interrelatedness of reading and writing is noted, and evidence of the importance of speech coding for reading comprehension is cited. The paper recommends that ASL be used to teach English literacy skills within the framework of a bilingual minority-language immersion program. ASL's use in teaching cultural components, emerging literacy skills, advanced literacy skills, vocabulary, and comprehension is examined in detail. (48 references) (JDD)