Challenges of Reading Comprehension Development of Deaf Learners in Foreign Language Classroom

Challenges of reading comprehension development of deaf learners in foreign language classroom: putting theory into practice

Presenter: Mgr. Jitka Sedláčková

Affiliations: Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Professional details

Jitka Sedláčková has been a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University since 2011. In her PhD project she focuses on the development of reading comprehension of deaf learners inEnglish as a Foreign Language classroom on the university level of education. She has been teaching students with hearing impairments in the Support Centre for Students with Special Needs at Masaryk University for six years.

Long abstract

Introduction

The presentation will introduce reading strategy instruction practice in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom for deaf learners. The instruction practice was designed as a part ofaPhD project, which investigates the possibilities of reading comprehension development of deaf learners in EFL classroom. The presentation will begin with theoretical framework followed by brief description of the PhD project. Its main part will focus on the instruction practice content, process and observations made during its implementation.

Context

The project takes place in the context of tertiary level of education. Masaryk university has asubstantial number of hearing impaired students (about 100) who receive assistance in the Support Centre for Students with Special Needs. The type of support ranges from note-taking and interpretation services to face-to-face or small-group classes for hard-of-hearing and deaf (HoH & D) students. The Centre organizes foreign language (FL) instruction for HoH & D students from all university faculties. HoH & D students are not tested in the spoken form of the FL and profoundly deaf students often choose to be instructed solely in the written form of the FL. Spoken practice is to a large extent substituted bychatting in the target language.

Reading has long been recognized as one of the key issues of deaf education. Research has shown low achievements in reading comprehension of HoH & D learners[1] and the situation is viewed as one ofthemain causes of their academic and career underachievemnt (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002, p.158–159). In academic setting high level of reading comprehension is expected and it is not surprising that for HoH & D students reading long and specialized texts for the study purposes represents a very demanding task. This applies to their national spoken language and themore so toany other FLs they learn.

In FL learning reading skills may to a large extent be transferred from the first language (Harmer, 1991). In case of HoH & D learners reading skills are often not well developed in a national language (the first language of reading experience) and this situation presents yet another obstacle for FL acquisition. Next to the linguistic competence development in the FL it may therefore be beneficial for HoH &D foreign language learners to receive more support in skills development. Research ofboth, intact and HoH & D learners has indicated that reading strategy instruction may improve reading comprehension in the first as well as a foreign language (Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Block, 1986, Schirmer 2003; Pressley, 2006; Thumann 2006).

Description of the project

The aim of the PhD project is to gain insight into deaf learners' reading process when reading inEFL and investigate the influence of reading strategy instruction on the process and learners' attitudes to reading.

The research adopts a qualitative approach with multiple case studies of deaf university students who take practical English courses as a part of their curriculum. The research process includes pre-test, intervention and post-test stages. The intervention constitutes explicit reading strategy instruction which is implemented in a one semester practical English course. Before the start ofthesemester students are interviewed and written verbalization is conducted during reading English materials (the pre-test stage). This is repeated at the end of the semester (the post-test stage).

In 2013 a pilot study of the research methodology was realized, which provided useful information both on the data collection procedure and the reading process of deaf learners reading in EFL. Todate two deaf EFL learners have completed all of the three stages of the research process. Both are pre-lingually deaf and prefer using sign language for their everyday communication. One ofthem comes from a hearing family and one from a deaf family. Their FL proficiency level is around A2 / B1 according to CEFR.

Procedure

The content of the reading strategy practise is based on sources from several areas. First is theknowledge of reading process of HoH & D learners (e.g. Schirmer, 2003; Thumann, 2006). Second is theoretical knowledge of second language reading (e.g. Grabe, 2009). And the third area are researches examining the influence of reading strategy instruction on reading comprehension development (e.g. Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Salataci & Akyen, 2002; Pressley, 2006). For categorization of the reading strategies we used a system based on the levels of text processing – decoding text (i. e. strategies for getting the meaning of words and sentences), constructing meaning (e.g. questioning, predicting, inferring, connecting with background knowledge) and metacognitive processing (e.g. planning, evaluating own work, dealing with problems in understanding). For planning lessons and preparing activities on reading strategy instruction, two publication were found particularly useful, Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding by Harvey and Goudvis (2000) andReading Practices with Deaf Learners byMcAnally, Rose and Quigley (2007).

The reading strategy instruction is meant to become part of a practical English course. Even though reading skills are in the centre of attention this can not be done at the expense of the development ofother skills and linguistic knowledge. The reading strategy instruction activities were prepared individually for each student using mostly the materials included in the course they were taking. It is clear that in the span of one semester it is not possible to cover all of the selected reading strategies. The objective of the reading strategy instruction is to give an overall idea of the existence of reading strategies to the learners and to give the learners achance for hands-on practice of some ofthem.

Conclusion

The reading strategy instruction was realized in two separate practical English face-to-face courses with two students. The practice demonstrated that such instruction can become a natural part ofreading activities in a practical English course. Although the data examining the potential influence ofsuch instruction on the reading process of deaf students in EFL and on their attitudes toreading is yet to be analysed, the practice provided useful insight into the possibilities of reading skills development of deaf students in EFL classroom.

References

Block, E. (1986). The comprehension strategies of second language readers. TESOL Quaterly 20(3),463–494.

Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a Second Language. Moving from Theory to Practice. New York: CUP.

Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. Ontario: Stenhouse Publishers.

Marschark, M., Lang, H. G., & Albertini, J. A. (2002). Educatin Deaf Students. From Research to Practice. New York: OUP.

McAnally, P. L, Rose, S., & Quigley, S. P. (2007). Reading Practices with Deaf Learners. Austin: Pro-Ed.

Mühlová, K. (1990). Hodnocení komunikačních dovedností u těžce sluchově postižených žáků [Evaluating communicative skills of profoundly hearing impaired pupils]. (Diploma thesis). Praha: Katedra speciální pedagogiky PedF UK.

Paul, P. V. (2003). Processes and Components of Reading. In M. Marschark, & P. E. Spencer (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education (p. 97-109). New York: OUP.

Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1986).Interactive teaching to promote independent learning from text.The Reading Teacher,39(8), 771–777.

Pressley, M. (2006). Reading Instruction that Works. (3rd ed.). New York: Gilford Press.

Salataci, R., & Akyen, A. (2002). Possible Effects of Strategy Instruction on L1 and L2 Reading. Reading in a Foreign Language 14(1), 1–17.

Schirmer, B. R., &Williams, C. (2003). Approaches to Teaching Reading. In M. Marschark, & P. E. Spencer (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education (p. 110–122). New York: OUP.

Velehradská, O., & Kuchler, K. (1998). Průzkum čtenářských dovedností na školách pro děti svadami sluchu. [Research of reading skills in schools for hearing impaired children]. INFO-Zpravodaj FRPSP – Magazín, 6 (1–2).

Thumann, H. R. (2006). Reading Strategies of Skilled Deaf Adult Readers. Disertační práce. State University of San Francisco.

[1]In the Czech Republic only two investigations of reading comprehension achievement of HoH & D learners have taken place (Mühlová, 1990; Velehradská & Kuchler, 1998). However, in the USA a continuous research on the topic has been pointing to a low reading achievements of HoH & D learners since 1920s (Paul, 2003).