Recently, the number of profoundly deaf or hard-of-hearing students enrolled in Japanese courses at American universities has increased. Despite the critical needs of these students and challenges of teaching them, there are very few studies on teaching foreign languages to deaf/hard-of-hearing students (cf. Ian & Gary, 1993).
Deaf/hard-of-hearing students have unique needs in foreign language learning. Teaching them therefore requires special arrangements throughout the course, or even before it begins. First, depending on the degree of their residual hearing and intension to use speech for communication, evaluation criteria must be defined ahead of time. Second, the types of assistance and forms of instruction in the classroom must be modified according to students?f residual hearing levels and communication goals. In order to become functional users of a foreign language, deaf/hard-of-hearing students need more than the assistance provided by ASL interpreters. These students need to engage in productive (i.e., speaking or writing) activities in the classroom while their hearing classmates practice speaking; thus instructors must consider designing activities that benefit both groups. Third, learning a non-alphabetic language such as Japanese adds another layer of challenge because the sound-form connection is less transparent in such languages, yet students are often required to master Japanese characters, typically as soon as they start learning the language.
Based on case studies, we will compare some alternative methods of instruction and show that the direct involvement of a note-taker during the class, coupled with a dynamic use of technology, has yielded fruitful learning experiences that were measured by the language retention and proficiency of deaf/hard-of-hearing students. We will also summarize the challenges that still surround deaf/hard-of-hearing students and their instructors in foreign language education, and propose possible solutions.
Reference
Ian, C. & Gary, C. (1993). The Special Needs of the Deaf Foreign Language
Learner. Journal of Language Learning, 7, 47-49.