Phonological coding plays an important role in reading for hearing readers. Most deaf or hard of hearing readers have great difficulty in learning to read, and there are plenty of studies to explore the reasons for these reading difficulties. Since the main difference between the deaf and the hearing readers is whether they have full access to the auditory input or not, one well accepted explanation for deaf readers’ difficulty is the lack of phonological coding during reading. However, There has been a significant degree of debate within the published literature concerning the extent to which deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading. Some studies have found that deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading, while other studies have not found that deaf readers activate phonological coding. There is a large difference between Chinese and alphabetic writing systems. In alphabetic writing systems, there is always a certain mapping between the spelling of a word and its pronunciation, that is, there is a orthography-phonology transformation. Compared with alphabetic writing systems, Chinese has a low level of orthographic transparency. The orthography-phonology transformation of Chinese characters is not always regular or consistent. Whether Chinese deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading has gradually begun to receive attention. The study of explore whether deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading Chinese has just started and the research conclusions are controversial. The research paradigm used in the experiment and the characteristics of the deaf readers are the main reasons for the disagreement about whether deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading. The research content of different research paradigms is different, and the lexical processing process reflected in the research results is not completely consistent. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the research paradigms in the phonological coding research of the deaf readers in detail. There has been several research paradigms concerning the phonological coding in deaf readers at abroad, including phonological awareness task, naming task, lexical judgment task and sentence reading task. Further, the lexical judgment task includes homophone judgment task and mask prime task, the sentence reading task includes error disruption paradigm, parafoveal phonological preview task and tongue-twister reading task. In order to provide reference for Chinese scholars who study whether Chinese deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading. The present paper introduces these research paradigms including the experiment procedures, experimental rationals and the related studies of these experimental tasks. Furthermore, the present paper introduces the application of these research paradigms in Chinese research. In the end, we discuss the future directions in the research of Chinese deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading. Based on the review of the prior research, some advice have been put forward for the future: (1) Chinese as a experimental material to explore the advantages of whether deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading; (2) Using eye tracking technique to explore whether deaf readers activate phonological coding during reading is a new trend; (3) To investigate the mental mechanism of deaf readers’ phonological coding by combining brain imaging technology and behavior research.