Vision problems among students in schools and programs for deaf children. A survey of teachers of deaf students.

Vision problems are more common among deaf people than among the general population. Eight percent of the students in schools and programs for deaf children can be expected to have vision problems. We sent questionnaires to institutions and programs for deaf children, requesting information about the extent of vision problems among their students and about their teachers' levels of preparation in the area of vision impairment. Responses were received from 490 teachers. The data confirm that significant numbers of deaf students also have vision problems, and that teachers do not receive adequate training and information to meet the needs of this population.     

Adjunct aids in instructional prose: a multimedia study with deaf college students

A computer-based science lesson was administered to 144 deaf college students grouped into low, middle, and high reading ability levels. Five instructional conditions were compared: (1) text only, (2) text and content movies, (3) text and sign movies, (4) text and adjunct questions, and (5) all of these together (full condition). The low reading level subjects in the adjunct question and full conditions demonstrated immediate, factual learning performance comparable to that of the high reading level subjects in the text-only condition. These and other results of this investigation suggest the compensatory potential of adjunct aids and associated mathemagenic activities to improve factual learning from instructional prose for low reading ability students.     

聋校语文教学如何培养聋生的审美能力

聋校语文教材中呈现了多姿多彩的审美形态和审美范畴。在教学中要引领学生感受美,启迪学生鉴赏美,鼓励学生体现美。培养和提高聋生的审美能力。     

Using immediate recall to assess language proficiency in deaf students.

We used an immediate recall paradigm to study the effects of list organization and semantic and grammatical features of printed stimuli on working memory capacity in deaf students with differing English language abilities. Thirty lists of five organizational types (random words, semantically related words, semantically paired words, scrambled sentences, and grammatical sentences) were presented to two groups of deaf students who differed in their proficiency in the English language. The students were required to recall the lists in writing. The results indicate that, overall, the students with higher levels of English language proficiency recalled significantly more than those with lower levels. Additionally, semantic and syntactic organization of the lists had different effects on the two groups of students. Semantic pairing aided the low-level group significantly more than the high-level group, whereas the syntactic organization of the grammatical sentences aided the high-level group significantly more. Implications for assessing language ability in deaf students are discussed.     

Lecturers’ vs. students’ perceptions of the accessibility of instructional materials

This goal of this study was to examine the differences between lecturers and students’ perceptions of the accessibility of instructional materials. The perceptions of 12 mature computing distance education students and 12 computing lecturers were examined using the knowledge elicitation techniques of card sorting and laddering. The study showed that lecturers had pedagogical views while students tended to concentrate on surface attributes such as appearance. Students perceived instructional materials containing visual representations as most accessible. This has two implications for the professional development of computing lecturers designing instructional materials. First, lecturers need to appreciate the differences between expert and novice views of accessibility and how students will engage with the materials. Second, lecturers need to understand that learners perceive instructional materials containing visual representations as more accessible compared to ‘text only’ versions. Hence greater use of these may enable students to engage more readily in learning. Given that print is the ubiquitous teaching medium this is likely to have implications for students and lecturers in other disciplines.     

Written language of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in public schools

We obtained data on the writing of 110 deaf or hard-of-hearing students attending public schools who completed the spontaneous writing portion of the Test of Written Language. The average written quotient for the sample was in the below-average range but within 1 standard deviation of the test mean. Forty-nine percent of the sample received written quotients within or above the average range. Mean scores for the three subtests of contextual conventions, contextual language, and story construction were within the low-average range; between 55% and 68% of students scored within the average or above-average range for the subtests. Predictors of writing quotients were eligibility for free lunch, grade, degree of hearing loss and gender; however, only 18% of the variance in total writing quotients was explained by these variables. The data indicate that attention needs to be paid to the writing ability and instruction of many public-school students regardless of degree of hearing loss.     

Effectiveness of multimedia reading materials when used with children who are deaf

The purpose of the study was to assess the relative effectiveness of print, sign, and pictures in the transfer of reading-related information to children who are deaf. By means of personal computers, deaf children were presented CD-ROM-generated stories in four different formats: print only, print plus pictures, print plus sign language, and print plus pictures plus sign. A repeated-measure design was used to analyze participants' reading comprehension performance. Significant differences were found among the four presentation options. One observed phenomenon was that participants would switch from American Sign Language to Signed English when analyzing text. The study findings suggest that presenting stories on CD-ROM with multiple modes of reading cues, such as print, pictures, and sign language, may be an enjoyable and interesting supplement to standard reading practices.     

Anaphoric reference strategies used in written language productions of deaf teenagers

There are few researchers who analyze written productions by deaf individuals; there are also few researchers who discuss the knowledge these people have about written text comprehension and production. For the present study, the investigators analyzed 16 written productions by four deaf individuals based on the anaphoric reference concept as recently proposed in textual linguistics (see, e.g., I. V. Koch & L. A. Marcuschi, 2002). It is important to show that referential progression is one of the textual aspects capable of giving stability and continuity to written productions; referential progression is also relevant to discursive coherence. The results of the writing analysis in the present study show that deaf individuals can learn to use expressive resources that are available in the Portuguese language and can use reference strategies, as long as these individuals can interact with a partner who knows Portuguese.     

College teachers' perceptions of English language characteristics that identify English language learning disabled deaf students

Deaf individuals typically experience English language difficulties at all levels of linguistic knowledge. Hearing individuals with English language learning disabilities (LD) can exhibit the same kinds of English language difficulties as deaf individuals. Although the existence of deaf individuals who also have LD has long been recognized, no definite criteria for identifying them exist, partly because of the confounding effects of deafness and LD on English language development. Despite the confound, previous surveys suggest that teachers believe atypical English-language behavior is a potential diagnostic marker for LD in deaf individuals. In the present study, a survey solicited the intuitions of experienced teachers and tutors of English to deaf college students regarding the degree of difficulty deaf students with and without LD might be expected to have in dealing with 30 specific English language phenomena. Spelling knowledge and a variety of English discourse, lexical syntactic, and morphological phenomena emerged as candidates for further study as potential markers of LD in the deaf population.     

Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students

Deaf students often differ from their hearing peers in written language development. Providing developmentally appropriate instruction is ideal, yet current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the written language (i.e., syntactic) development of deaf students. In this research, we use a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach to language analysis to provide teachers with a new way to evaluate deaf students’ writing. This project consisted of two studies. The first study focused on determining whether SFG analysis could be helpful for teachers of the deaf. The second study focused on mapping a trajectory of the written language development of deaf students and the development of written language inventory for teachers of the deaf. This inventory, along with additional evaluation tools, has the potential to impact both objective setting and instruction.     

A "consumer" survey of educational provision for deaf and hard of hearing students

The researchers report the results of a survey of 140 deaf and hard of hearing students attending integrated or self-contained high school classrooms in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The survey was designed to gather information about educational experiences and preferences for various types of educational placements. There were no gender differences in placement, but there were hearing status differences (81.6% of the students in segregated placements had severe or profound hearing losses, compared to 52.4% of the students in integrated settings). Even though students were aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the different placement options, 80% indicated that they were generally satisfied with their current placement. One implication is that a range of options seems to be more appropriate than a one-size-fits-all model, at least from students' perspectives. The views and preferences of students should be considered when educational provisions are designed for students who are deaf or hard of hearing.