at adam mickiewicz university in Poznań
anna nabiałek
adam mickiewicz university, Poznań
abstract
In this article the author wishes to present the assumptions, schemes of work and some aspects of teaching English as a foreign language to deaf/ deaf and hard of hearing stu-dents of Adam Mickiewicz university in Poznań .
Key words: deaf/deaf and hard of hearing students, teaching/learning English, sign lan-guage, multimedia laboratory, interactive whiteboard, individual approach, visual tech-niques .
The establishment of both the language course for hearing-impaired people studying at our university and a modern, excellently equipped multimedia laborato-ry was initiated by Mr . roman durda, M .A ., the rector’s representative for students with disabilities . With great support of the rectoral services, a specialist outline for the English language course for students with hearing impairment of all faculties of AMu was very quickly developed by two English teachers of the university: Anna nabiałek, M .A . and IzabelaKomar-Szulczyńska, M .A .
The English language course assumptions are as follows:
1 . The language is taught over 6 semesters (360 hours), with 4 teaching hours per week (2 x 2x45 minutes) .
2 . The classes are conducted in two modules:
– for hearing-impaired students (instructor – IzabelaKomar-Szulczyńska) – for deaf students who use the Polish or manually-coded sign language
(instructor – Anna nabiałek) with interpretation from sign language (Joanna nehring, M .A .) .
3 . The course ends with a written exam at least at the A2 level according to the common European Framework of reference for Languages .
4 . The number of students in a group (2-4) is adjusted to the students’ needs and degree of hearing impairment . It is also assumed that individual instruc-tion will be possible in excepinstruc-tional cases .
5 . Implementation of the course is based on the material of the Pearson Long-man course books Total English and Language Leader, as well as Total English Digital and Language Leader Digital – interactive whiteboard software, and is supplemented with texts and exercises supplied to the students in the form of photocopies and online techniques, taking into account the specificity and the needs of hearing-impaired people . Further modification possibilities de-pend on the learners’ competence and the teachers’ choice . The course can also be implemented on the basis of other course books .
6 . The use of the VIdEodIdAct computer system and diverse visualisation techniques, in particular multimedia ones, that enable the best possible con-veyance, establishment and verification of knowledge .
The following instructional objectives were also adopted:
1 . Learning the English language to the degree of enabling independent read-ing of original texts
2 . conveyance of the basic knowledge of English speaking countries (including everyday life, geography, culture and customs, writers of prose and poetry . . .) 3 . teaching the use of various grammar books and dictionaries, both in book
form and online, taking into account the specificity of the use of the phonetic alphabet by hearing-impaired people
4 . teaching and perfecting the correctness and clarity of written texts and ut-terances
5 . Working on understandable pronunciation as our students constantly insist on learning spoken English as much as possible
The main centre the experiences of which we employed was the Podlasie Acad-emy in Siedlce, now Siedlce university of natural Sciences and Humanities, where the instructors from Poznań encountered teaching English to hearing-impaired stu-dents for the first time . during the Integration days in May 2008, Ms . Beata Gulati, M .A ., the rector’s representative and director of the centre for Instruction and re-habilitation of People with disabilities of the Podlasie Academy, familiarised us with teaching-related solutions and the use of the interactive whiteboard . We also had the opportunity to share opinions and hold discussions with representatives of Student disability Services of the universities of oxford and Edinburgh, as well as Professor Allan Hurst from Preston .
When developing the format of the course, we alsomade use of the experiences of excellent specialists in the field, such as Professor daniela Janakova, the direc-tor of the Language resource centre, Faculty of Arts, charles university of Prague, who invited us to the czech republic in April 2009 to participate in English
lan-guage classes with hearing-impaired students and to familiarise us with the specialist equipment . Thanks to the visit, not only was cooperation between the universities established in the field of teaching English to hearing-impaired students, but we also had the opportunity to meet an exceptional woman, a teacher with extraordinary personality, Professor daniela Janakova and her colleagues fully involved in instruc-tional issues: Maria dolezalova and JakubJanak . We hope to start cooperation with other universities such as Masaryk university in Brno, the czech republic, and the John Paul II university of Lublin (KuL) in Poland .
to meet the formidable challenge of organising and conducting a course for hearing-impaired people, during the classes I started to learn Polish sign language by participation as an auditorin the undergraduate course . I also completed the el-ementary sign language course for civil service employees passing the examination with a very good grade and distinction in June 2008 . to my surprise, the Language and Sign System (System Językowo-Migowy, SJM) I learned turned out not to be the natural language of the deaf . SJM is actually a visual representation of the Polish language, a set of manual signs following the grammatical rules of Polish . used by the majority of ‘sign-language interpreters’ in Poland and seen, for example, on tele-vision, SJM is often confused with Polish Sign Language (Polski Język Migowy, PJM), the natural language of the deaf community .
trying to avoid this confusion I took part in the 1st edition of the Summer School of Polish Sign Language (Polski Język Migowy, PJM), organised in cracow by the Sign Language Educational centre of the Polish deaf Society in July 2009 . The main assumptions of the School, which lasted almost three weeks, were:
– perfecting communication skills when using PJM in various language situa-tions (24 instructors – culturally deaf people)
– development of metalinguistic competence (knowledge about the language) – extension of the knowledge of the deaf culture (language differences, histor-ical awareness, habits, values, humour, poethistor-ical expression, artistic activity); it was emphasised that PJM is a cultural identifier of the Polish deaf community and that the deaf are in all respects a people culturally belonging to a community which is a language minority .
– development of the skill to hold conversations in PJM with culturally deaf people
I perceived all of the assumptions as exceptionally important for working with hearing-impaired students, who, apart from SJM acquired by them at school, most often naturally communicate in PJM among themselves .
Analysing my experiences and translating them into preparation for teaching the English language, I noticed the need to redefine the concepts of “mother tongue” and
“foreign language” with reference to deaf students . For, depending on the kind and degree of hearing-impairment, as well as the family and school situation, hearing-im-paired people communicate in different ways: with the use of the signs of the natural sign language, verbally, using the Polish language and reading the words from the
lips of the interlocutor, or verbally in the Polish language using SJM at the same time . Yet all of them use Polish in writing, which is the basis for claims of deaf people’s bilingualism . not infrequently does it happen that hearing-impaired people cannot indicate whether sign language or the Polish language is their mother tongue, and which one they learned as a foreign language . The studies of Ewadomagała-Zyśk, Ph .d ., (2004) from the John Paul II catholic university of Lublin, and her definition of the concept of surdoglottodidactics were of much assistance when looking for an answer to this question .
The first examinations in English for hearing-impaired people were carried out at the university in Poznań in the 2009/2010 academic year . They were taken by six stu-dents: four people at the A2 level and two people at the B1 level . The obtained results (2 very good grades, 3 good grades and 1 sufficient grade) showed that hearing-im-paired students not only are not behind, but with the application of appropriately selected instructional methods they may reach a level of command of English com-parable to or even higher in some cases than those of students from ‘regular’ groups .
At present, English classes for our students are conducted in 6 groups:
– 3 groups for deaf people (levels A2 and B1)
– 3 groups for hearing-impaired students (levels A1, B1 and B2) .
In addition, English classes were attended by one visually-impaired person and two people with other disabilities . In total, in the 2011/2012 academic year our course is attended by fifteen students from various faculties and studying for various degrees, from bachelor’s to postgraduate, one person who studies extramurally, while two stu-dents, having passed the exam, returned to us selecting English as an optional subject .
The classes are held in an easily accessible modern multimedia laboratory, lo-cated on the ground floor, designed specially for people with hearing impairment . The room has been carefully sound-insulated and equipped with an audio induction loop, it has the right sound system and is well-lit . The oval table, at which we sit, ena-bles close, direct contact . We see our faces and nobody is hidden behind anyone else .
Photo 1 . Multimedia Foreign Language Laboratory and the youths who use it