How to Teach Vocabulary in a Second Language to Hard Hearing

Students of 5th and 6th Grade in the school Anne Sullivan Using ICT
Seminario de Grado presentado en conformidad a los requisitos
para obtener el grado de Licenciado en Educación

Carolina Denisse Adasme Cordero

17.803.911-3
Paz Andrea Soto Urzúa
16.421.097-9
Profesor guía: Claudio Hernández Jara
13.271.667-6

Santiago, 24 de Julio 2018

Abstract

Teaching students with special needs has become a necessity for graduated teachers who
nowadays face new generation’s classrooms. It seems to be that students’ special needs have
changed and educators may be formed to manage these challenges. However, pedagogy students’
development is focused on transitive or cognitive special needs which lay aside physical but at
the same time substantial special needs such as deafness. The aim of this research is teaching
English vocabulary using American sign language in Chilean classrooms as a communicative
methodology to make possible learning a second language by deaf students. ICTs are allied in
this process because of their accessibility and the high self-motivation that provokes in young
students independently of their age or origin. Besides, the use of chunks, and a teacher who
managing and interpreting American sign language made the bridge between both sign
languages, as an effective communicative strategy. Results showed that students increasing their
vocabulary knowledge in the target language also demonstrated their ability to produce isolated
words and concepts using American sign language. Participants proved not only to have abilities
to face a second language learning process but also serious additional cognitive problems which
affected some aspects of the present research. Using ICT students developed their autonomy
searching new vocabulary by themselves. Summing up, including sign language in pedagogy’s
programs and implement systematically English subject in deaf special schools are some of the
challenge that comes after this research.

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We thank to our parents and family for the unceasing encouragement, support and attention.
Thanks to Ariela, Facu and Nico for being our accompany in this long process, we love you.

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Index

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Index ............................................................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 6
Justification and Significance of Research ............................................................................................... 7
Objectives of Study ..................................................................................................................................... 10
General Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 10
Specific Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Specific Objective One ........................................................................................................................... 11
Specific Objective Two........................................................................................................................... 11
Research Question .................................................................................................................................. 11
Subsidiary Question ................................................................................................................................ 12
Subsidiary Questions .............................................................................................................................. 12
Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................................... 13
Use of Direct Method Inside a classroom. .............................................................................................. 15
Use Grammar Translation inside a Deaf Classroom. .............................................................................. 22
How to Teach Vocabulary to Deaf or Hearing Impairment Students ..................................................... 25
How to Use Lexical Approach to Improve Vocabulary.......................................................................... 26
American Sign Language or Cued Speech Method ................................................................................ 28
Methodological framework ......................................................................................................................... 30
School Background ................................................................................................................................. 30
Results........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 41
Reference List ............................................................................................................................................. 44
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 46

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5
Introduction

School deaf community is increasing through the years (Instituto Nacional de

Estadisticas, 2015) and with this also their demands of space and the same condition as hearing

population. Chilean context in general terms has been getting better through the years, increasing

opportunities for deaf people to develop themselves in job’s aspects and Chilean civic life as

citizens with the same responsibilities and rights as hearing ones. Talking about education, Chile

has been able to adapt to the challenge of educating students with special needs particularly hard

hearing students. The promulgation of Decree 83 in 2015 was a change in local history of

education, recognizing students with special needs as a real issue in the classroom and how

teachers must implement their methodologies in an effective way to improve the final purpose of

the learning process. General Education Law published in 2009, in its article number 23 claimed

some characteristics of students with special needs giving us directions about what aspects of

these needs teachers should have in mind: “It is understood as a student with educational special

needs who requests additional help and resources, human, material or pedagogical ones, to lead

to the developing process and learning, and contribute to the final goal of education” (2009, pp.

8) Thus, it is imperative for English teachers to improve their own teaching performance in order

to cover this classroom diversity, using a variety of didactics and activities according to the

students characteristics.

Consequently, an active teacher requests being updated respecting to new technologies

and the innovative uses of ICT, making learning interesting, didactic and attractive for the

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denominated “Z generation” in which currently students belong. Then, the inclusion program

encourages teachers to work with students who cannot communicate orally or present oral

problems as deaf and hard hearing but possess alternative ways to communicate through the uses

of another skill. However, there is a significant number of teachers who do not count with the

preparation to work with this minority of students. Hence, the usage ICT in the classroom

becomes a support for the special needs effective attention. Lanni (2005) claimed that using ICT

resources there are '…undeniable improvements of language skill and strategies related to

handling information and the language through which it is conveyed in the stages of searching,

analyzing and processing information' (pp.8)

Therefore, a conscious practice with ICT in the classroom could create a bridge between

English learning and Special needs students as hard hearing or deaf population.

Justification and Significance of Research

The Chilean educational system tries to create bilingual students integrating officially the

English subject from 5th grade. However, talking about special needs students, the educational

system segregates those who do not share the same condition as the common of schoolchildren.

Despite of the efforts of covering completely school age population, many children and young

girls and boys are obliged to look for special schools where their specific deficiency could be

attended in a most proper way. For instance, hard hearing students with a high level of hearing

disability, are forced to attend to differential schools in which even though they find specialized

teachers, these educators have no preparation in English teaching methodologies, so they are not

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able to teach this second language. As well, there is a significant number of differential teachers

who do not dominate sign language in the mother tongue making almost impossible to find

specialists in a second sign language increasing the rift between Chilean deaf and hard hearing

population and English-speaking culture.

When a hearing person thinks in the concept of bilingual, immediately associates it with

the ability to communicate in a second language, no matter if it is in oral or written form. In the

same way, deaf community could define a bilingual person as the one who is able to

communicate using sign language and in written form. Deaf people consider the sign language as

their principal means of communication, and here is where a Chilean English teacher faces the

first challenge: How could it be possible to teach English using sign language if there is not

qualified English teacher or differential teacher who manages the English sign language? There

are numerous causes because teaching or learning to communicate in sign language has been

treated as an advantage but not a priority in the Chilean educational system. For example,

learning English or French has been considered as part of the study plan because of the

possibility of facing a communicative experience with foreign people but it has not been

evaluated that there are many more possibilities to interact with a Chilean deaf person or hard

hearing person in a common situation than meeting a native English speaker. In our country, the

problematic of teaching a second language as English using sign language is a lot less common,

mainly because there have been few experiences and attempts to create spaces for teaching the

deaf community and the lack of teachers with the expertise. Of course, there are specific cases

that have had the opportunity to learn, American Sign Language for instance, in a non-formal

context in foreign countries.

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 The use of sign language is not focused only on deaf students, it also can be used as a tool

for students with hearing disabilities. Then, if the result of an audiometry of a student presents

the level of 40-60 dB it is declared as a hard hearing student, it means, this student must attend to

a special needs school or a deaf students’ one. Attending to one of these institutions does not

mean that this child or young person will have the chance to learn English. Also, it is highly

probable that, in the case of counting with some English classes, these would be focused on

teaching just writing skills.

According to UNICEF “The government has a responsibility to make sure your rights are

protected. They must help your family protect your rights and create an environment where you

can grow and reach your potential” (1991, pp. 2). But what happens if the government decides

that there are special need students who should be educated apart from the “common children”

because of the nature of their disability? And what happens if the teachers do not have the

resources to increase that potential because they do not know how to work with these special

needs? Decree 83 was created to permit the curricular adaptation in the common classroom, but

it is still a legal vacuum in this issue, existing several numbers of pupils who deal with physical

or sense disabilities as deaf or hard hearing children who are not able to express themselves in

English. This research makes emphasis on the necessity that the hearing community prepares

specialized future English teachers focusing on the knowledge of special needs as deaf or hard

hearing students. Potentiating the use of extra communication tools, with people who represent a

minority of the school age community.

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Objectives of Study

General Objectives

❖ To teach English Vocabulary as a second language to Chilean Hard Hearing

Students.

This research is focused on the use of strategies inside the classroom of students with a

very specific condition which is the lack of a considerable level of the hearing skill. This state is

followed by the lack of speaking skill which coexists with the listening one. When the students

need to produce or receive the stimulus of a second language.

These students are not dumb because, in this context, all pupils are considered inside the

hard hearing disability range. Thus, they wear a hearing aid calibrated according to their results

of the audiometry range which is from 40db to 80 db. In other words, they are not totally deaf,

but they need extra help and according to the educational policies, they need to attend to a

Special Needs School as Deaf one.

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Specific Objectives

Specific Objective One

To teach vocabulary in English to Hard Hearing students and connect the meaning with

American Sign Language.

Specific Objective Two

To teach vocabulary in context in second language using chunks.

Research Question

How to teach vocabulary in a second language to Hard Hearing Students?

English teachers during their initial formation program go through for a range of themes about

how to work with a standard student model who has the natural condition to learn a second

language developing their four skills. However, English teachers are not prepared to deal with

students who have permanent physical limitations as deaf ones. Furthermore, the Chilean

Ministry of Education does not count with specialized material to support the English learning

process considering deaf student’s needs. The available material points to promote the speaking

and listening skills which are evidently unachievable for deaf and hard hearing students specially

in the early levels of formal education.

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 Subsidiary Question

Subsidiary Questions

❖ How to use ICT to Support Vocabulary teaching in second language to Hard Hearing

Students?

Considering that Chilean English teachers are not prepared to work with deaf or hard

hearing students, the use of ICT becomes a strategical tool to support the learning process

because they are a nexus between English and hard hearing student’s reality.

❖ How to use visual aids to connect American Sign Language with new Vocabulary?

Hard hearing students have been developing their visual memory as one of their biggest

strengths. Thus, using visual aids the research is presented as a friendly and useful technique for

students.

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Theoretical Framework

American Sign Language and Chilean Sign Language structure

First at all, it is key to establish that American Sign Language and Chilean Sing

Language have a different alphabet. This is necessary to be clarified because the sign language is

not a global language, some letters can share the movement, but it is not the same meaning for all

the variety of these languages.

Chilean Sign Language Alphabet.

Source: ASOCH October 31st ,2011. (Lengua de Señas Chilena, 2011)

American Sign Language Alphabet.

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Source: American Sign Language (ASL) Fingerspelled Alphabet. Lifeprint.com. (American Sign
Language University, 1997 - 2015)

Inside both sign language cultures, they have the use of a dominant hand, it means, this is

the hand which controls the meaning of the movement, generally it is the right hand. In general

terms, Chilean Sign Language and American Sign Language share the same syntax structure.

Both follow the Fitzgerald key which is well known for all the deaf and hard hearing

communities. In Chile, Chilean deaf community does not have an official book to learn this sign

system but some schools developed a time ago their own literacy textbook (Baéz L., et al., 2003)

which is composed by different activities to make the reading and writing process something

easier for the new students, using material of Enlaces from the Chilean Ministry of Education

(Enlaces Mineduc, 2014) which is online in Youtube, learners of Chilean sign language can

distinguish some patters in the syntax structure.

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 This research maintains the syntax structure exposed by Jay (2011) because it is the only

book which could explain the different kinds of sentences in a clear way for foreign hearing

learners can understand without the interaction of a native deaf, hard hearing or teacher speaker.

Use of Direct Method Inside a classroom.

Brown (2000) made mention to the Direct Method in the process of learning a second

language, according to him, if a young learner is exposed directly to the second language using

the correct stimulus, it is possible to learn it without the use of translation as a technique inside

the classroom.

To support the idea of Direct Method, Morávková (2011) referred to different kinds of

strategies which deaf students can develop if they have the correct stimulation and access:

• Spoken mother tongue

• Writing mother tongue

• Lip reading

• Fingerspelling

• Sign language

• Drawing

In addition to these strategies, Morávková (2011) suggests the use of 3 different teachers

who support this development as a staff, and they are divided into skills. The first teacher is a

Sign Language Interpreter: This professional needs to be fluent in both languages (Chilean sign

language and American Sign Language) and must have the capacity to switch languages when it

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is necessary, without losing the coherence of the class. The second teacher needs to develop the

role of Lip-Speaker; in which are exposed to diction exercise, so they can understand someone

just by reading their lips, when the receptor of the conversation is not able to communicate

through sign language. Finally, the third teacher must be a Note-Taker; this role consists on

teaching grammatical constructions with the purpose of being understandable for a hearing

receptor. The main reason and the importance of this role imply that sign language focuses on

communication, which means, it has its own structure according to the message and its needs.

Also, there are other important facts inside a classroom or a conversation based on sign

language: The cultural influences, Morávková (2011) referred to Nover and Andrew’s (1999)

research.

Culturally influenced patterns of language use

Language Use Patterns Deaf Culture Hearing Culture

Ways to get attention • Shoulder tap • Shouting

• Light switch • Whistling

• Tap on table or floor • Clearing throat

• Making noise

(knock, bang, tap, etc.)

• Eye contact • Voice inflection

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 Ways to maintain attention • Ask questions • Ask questions

• Facial expressions • Ask for responses

• Feedback cues • Stop talking

• Voice inflection

Turn taking • Stop signing (especially at the end of

• One-on-one or sentences)

group eye contact • Questioning

• Pausing

• Eye-brow • Wh-questions

Question patterns movement • Polite questions

• Head tilt (would you, could you,

• Lean torso couldn’t you)

• How are you?

Source: Norver, Stephen M. and Jean F. Andrews. Critical Pedagogy in Deaf Education:
Bilingual Methodology and Staff Development. (1999)

American Sign Language and Chilean sign language are two different sign styles, that

means they can have some common signs but with a different meaning.

If a hearing speaker needs to make an affirmative sentence in English, the speaker uses

the structure subject + verb + complement whereas a deaf person in American Sign Language

needs to know a specific structure for each sentence. According to Jay (2011) the syntax of a

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sign structure that a deaf speaker is going to use to create a connection with Chilean Sign

Language and the writing skill probably would be similar to American Sign Language. Besides,

sentences have Topic-Comment structures in other words, an affirmative sentence has two ways

to be organized.

“Topic” is Example Topic Comment Literal

Translation

Subject Girl kick ball Girl Kick ball “The girl

(Subj + verb+ kicked the

object) ball.”

“active voice”

Object Ball, girl kick Ball Girl kick “The ball was

(object +subject kicked by the

+verb) girl”

“passive voice

Source: Don't Just Sign... Communicate! A Student's Guide to ASL and the Deaf
Community. (Jay 2011, p. 91)

Jay (2011) used the expression Topicalization. It is another kind of non-manual marker at

the moment of doing a sentence structure that is accepted by the deaf community. Also, a deaf

speaker can find sentences without an object, this kind of sentence is called Word Order Without

Objects like “He Play”, but it cannot sign the verb before the subject, this is an incorrect ASL

sentence. Another kind of sentence is Word Order with Directional Verbs. In this kind of

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sentence, the speaker adds more information to the sentence, in this sense, the verb gives the

direction of the sentences.

In the following chart, it appears all the acceptable ASL sentences.

Subject -verb- object (SVO) “I – GIVE- you BOOK”

“He – GIVE - her BOOK”

Subject – verb – object -subject “HE – GIVE – her BOOK, HE “

(SVO or SVO+ Pronoun) “MAN he – GIVE – her BOOK, MAN”

“MAN he – GIVE -her BOOK, HE “

Object -subject – verb (OSV)

(Topicalization) “Book, he -GIVE-her “

Object-subject – verb -subject (OSVS or “BOOK, her- GIVE-her, HE”

OSV +Pronoun)

(Topicalization)

Source: Don't Just Sign... Communicate! A Student's Guide to ASL and the Deaf Community.
(Jay, 2011, p. 92)

In these examples, the words in capital letters indicated the direction of the object and all

the possible ways to express the same information. In this case the word man or He have

(considering the variation of has is not important for deaf community) the same use and sign,

then book is the object of the sentence and the verb give shows the receptor of the action.

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 Time-Topic-Comment is another variation inside ASL in which the speaker uses time

adverbs to make more specific the time and moment in which the activity is or was developed. In

this case, the speaker uses the same sign structure of Topic-Comment then adds the “time sign”

(time adverb) in the beginning of the sentence. For example:

Word Order Sign Example Literal Translation

Time- Subject-Ver -Object LAST-WEEK GIRL KICK “The girl kicked the ball

BALL last week.”

Time-Subject-Verb YESTERDAY HE WALK “He walked yesterday.”

Time – Subject -Adjective 2 -YEARS- AGO HE “He was ugly 2 years ago.”

UGLY

Source: Don't Just Sign... Communicate! A Student's Guide to ASL and the Deaf Community.

(Jay, 2011, p. 93)

When deaf speakers need to ask something, they would use different structures. For

hearing speakers, the differences might be small but in sign language the meaning of the

sentences can be changed as the kind of information that the receptor wants to know. These three

kinds of questions are “Wh” Word Questions, Yes/No Questions and Rhetorical Questions.

The first one is “Wh” Word questions that request more information in contrast to

“Yes/no questions”. In these sentences, the speaker is going to use the Wh-Question Words

which have their own signs, and which are at the end of the sentence.

These questions have also other elements: The Non-Manual Markers:

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• Lower your eyebrows

• Lean your head forward

• Hold the last sing in your sentence

In this kind of sentences, the deaf community has some specific exceptions, for example,

“How are you?” and “What time is it?

Then the Yes/No Question which only needs a simple answer. For instance: “Are you

deaf?” These sentences also have Non-Manual Markers:

• Raise your eyebrows

• Lean your head forward

• Hold the last sign in your sentence

To answer these sentences, deaf speakers have Declarative Sentences which are three:

Affirmative Declarative Sentences, Negative Declarative Sentences and Neutral Declarative

Sentences.

Affirmative Declarative Negative Declarative Neutral Declarative

Sentences Sentences Sentences

Non-manual marker: Non-manual marker: Non-manual marker:

• Nod your head • Shake your head • Neutral head

while signing (use • Scrunch up your position (no shaking or

appropriate facial face nodding)

• Frown

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 expression to emphasis the • Use appropriate face

affirmation) expression to emphasize the

idea

Source: Don't Just Sign... Communicate! A Student's Guide to ASL and the Deaf Community.

(Jay, 2011)

Use Grammar Translation inside a Deaf Classroom.

Considering that the focus of this research is teaching vocabulary, Brown (2000) suggests

the Grammar Translation Method which is focused on grammatical rules and memorization of

vocabulary. The development of this methodology could be related to the special needs of deaf

students, since it is required applied some of the flexibilities that Decree 83 made mention in the

adaptation of material for students with special needs. Curricular adaptation is the answer to the

needs and individual characteristics of the students, when class planning (even considering from

its start the diversity of students in the classroom) fails to give response to the special educational

needs that present some students, who required adjustments more significant to progress in their

learning and avoid marginalization of the school system (Ministerio de educación, 2015).

Morávková (2011) mentioned the use of thematic circles which involve words connected with

the main topic or following the roof of these words. Also, the teacher needs to teach the same

words in different contexts to make the example more real for the students, not only in an

isolated way this kind of exercise is useful for hearing students too. To support the idea of

teaching vocabulary and grammatical structures Morávková (2011) uses as a resource the Venn

Diagram, in which students can compare the target language with their native language; in that

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way the teacher is able to teach and emphasize the use of, for example, irregular nouns as child

and children that have a similar sign. This also is applied in the use and the explanation of

grammatical rules as final -s in 3rd person singular. Dividing the whiteboard, the teacher

translates each sentence and, taking as a tool from the Audiolingual Method drilling, can support

the teaching process of teaching some specific features which are exception with the syntax rules

previously mentioned, for instance, the question 'How are you ' This kind of question does not

need an extended explanation but can support the development of some short dialogues which is

one of the objectives for 5th grade. Using translation is also appropriate when the word is

difficult to understand for students who use the lip- read technique. Inside the classroom it is

necessary to find colors, graphics, visual support, the teacher shouldn’t speak meanwhile the

students are writing or reading, the majorities of the possible techniques have been discovered by

trial and error (Díaz, 2010). When students are learning vocabulary, it is necessary to use

translation in some words that are not related with them. In this context, the use of ICT inside a

lesson plan can be a useful tool. In addition, the implementation of ICT as a pedagogical tool to

practice some repetitive patterns of grammatical structures; for instance, the use of final -s in 3rd

person singular in Present Simple Tense or the use of suitable online dictionaries can develop the

autonomy of the students (Díaz, 2010). Writing words without a meaning is something that must

be avoided in a deaf classroom, students do not learn without a meaning for them (Gallion,2016).

The use of American Sign Language to connect both abilities, speaking and listening

skills which are replaced by the sign ability, a deaf student counts finally with the sign

communication as an ability of producing the language in contrast of hearing students who use

speaking skill, writing and reading abilities must be developed through the practice and time.

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 Important details to consider at the moment of developing a class with deaf students:

According to Lozanova (2009) a deaf person has some specific but relevant details to

develop in a conversation, these details consider the accessibility to see the other person or

teacher, body language and how long the sentence is, all these facts are related with the direct

interaction between a hearing person and a deaf person or student.

In general terms a deaf person is always going to prefer to maintain a distance

approximately of 1-2 meters. This distance permits to the student not only to develop the lip-

reading ability but also see the signs. Besides, places with a good illumination to see the signs

which are used by the interlocutor. The layout of the classroom has a primordial function, deaf

students prefer to be arranged in a semi-circle to pay attention to their classmates. The teacher

needs to support the use of colorful aids. In addition, the interlocutor needs to think of some

specific necessities or avoid some bad habits as eating or covering their mouth while talking. The

use of simple and short sentences and the modulation of the teacher’s mouth needs to be clear

but not exaggerated and the use of words with sounds should be visible at the moment of

pronouncing. These facts support the idea that each sign must be related to the information which

is being developed. For instance, if the educator is teaching feelings and the expressed emotion

is sadness, the teacher must express it through signing to be coherent with the content.

Lozanova (2009) also made differences between interaction with hearing impairment

people and students inside the classroom. These recommendations are focused on the teacher

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performance and considerate to make the teaching process easier. The teacher needs to be

flexible in the sense of how the students try to communicate their ideas. For deaf students he –

his – she- her are the same sign because they share the same sign. Repeating the same sign many

times if it is possible. This is also useful with hearing students but in the case of deaf students it

can mean they lose part of the information. Teachers have to use short sentences, and cannot

forget the eye contact, needs to be patient and try to be friendly with the students. The teacher is

interacting with a deaf student, not with a person who has any disease, the hearing impairment is

considered a condition, students are able to learn everything as possible but with some variations

in the strategies. For instance, it could take more time increase the use of visual aids to active the

visual memory.

How to Teach Vocabulary to Deaf or Hearing Impairment Students

Lozanova (2009) and Bronkop and Persall (2009) coincide in the idea of teaching

vocabulary in context is significant. Deaf students need to know how to use the word inside a

real context; for example, how an adjective can be used. Also, Bronkop and Persall (2009)

suggest the use of diagrams to create connections with synonyms or antonomys of these words.

In that way, if the main topic is professions, the students can learn about verbs and nouns related

with that profession; for example, Secretary is the profession, write is a verb related with the

profession and quickly is an adverb related to the main verb. On the other hand, Lozanova (2009)

paid attention to the necessities and qualities that a deaf student has; for instance, they can

understand better concrete nouns and familiar actions than abstract or general words. They have

a smaller expressive and receptive vocabulary as well. They need constantly a visual support to

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retain a longer period of time the idea or concept which is presented. Also, the use of colorful

flashcards and pictures can support the main purpose which is to learn more vocabulary and of

course all this vocabulary goes with the correct sign to improve both learning memories, spelling

and signs.

How to Use Lexical Approach to Improve Vocabulary

The Lexical Approach focuses not on individual words but on clusters or chunks of

words. Part of the reason for this is that individual words, particularly many of those which are

high in frequency, can change meaning depending on the other words they are chunked together

with. Another possibility to teach vocabulary and some short but meaningful sentences is the use

of chunks. Lackman (2011) mentioned three types of chunks and their characteristics:

• Collocations: Words which go together, usually, but not always, two words.

• Fixed expressions: Expressions which cannot be changed or can only be changed

minimally. Most fixed expressions are idiomatic or are those used in polite speech (e.g., How’s it

going?).

• Semi-fixed expressions: Expressions which have at least one slot into which many

different words or phrases can be inserted.

Lackman (2011) says the first step to teach vocabulary through the use of chunks is to

give the students the opportunity to notice that chunks can change and use new words. When the

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students are ready to recognize some common patterns, the teacher makes the last step which

consists in clarification; this strategy can be used in most of the tenses. Some activities that are

used come from of Task-Based Approach, in which the students can improve reading, writing

and vocabulary at the same time. The activity consists in using a specific text to develop a

description about how their perfect birthday or holyday would be.

In order to improve vocabulary, Lackman (2011) suggested different activities which are

mixed with different skills inside the classroom and which are friendly with the condition, and

supporting these activities Guzin , Umit , Yildiz , and Zehranur (2016) suggested the use of

Direct Vocabulary or Indirect Vocabulary from Bennett , Gardner III , Leighner , Clancy and

Garner (2014) to promote the convivence with the new language and the culture of the Hearing

Impaired students; for example, Find Someone Who… this activity supports speaking and

vocabulary “a standard activity which has been adapted to focus on different lexical structures all

involving (…). This particular activity could work with many other lexical chunks”. (Lackman,

2011, p. 13). In the same way, this activity permitted the use of simple questions which follow

the pattern of Yes/No Questions (Jay, 2011) .

Another way to improve vocabulary are songs. Nowadays it is very common to find

songs in ASL from different styles, this kind of activity supports vocabulary, listening and

reading, “Songs are a rich source of lexical items, particularly commonly used semi-fixed

expressions. When gapping song lyrics for use as a listening exercise, gap lyrics to get students

to focus on useful lexical chunks rather than individual work” (Lackman, 2011, p. 13)

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 Lexical Chunk Dictations develop the skill of reading and vocabulary. During this kind of

activity, the teacher gives a piece of paper with a lecture or song with some specific patterns to

students, then in pairs the students develop an activity in which the teacher asks for specific

patterns for example an Adjective and a Noun together. This activity can be used in a classroom

with deaf students because the focus is on vocabulary (Lackman,2011)

American Sign Language or Cued Speech Method

Considering that students are Hard Hearing and the research is focused on teaching

vocabulary, is it necessary to set aside the phonetics? Previously were mentioned the different

kinds of skill that an English teacher needs to develop in a class of deaf or hard hearing students.

How is working the phonetics if the students are newer in the hearing community? (Domagala-

Zys´k ,2016) postulated some strategies to work with hard hearing students and develop the

potential that they can improve in a second language. If it is true a hard hearing student does not

have a good pronunciation and constantly works with therapies about how to know the different

kinds of sounds inside the mother tongue (Domagala-Zys´k, 2016) mentioned the use of Cued

Speech. This tool has been adequate in different languages, the Spanish version is La Palabra

Complementada. The main purpose is teaching with some handshapes and hand positions how

the words are pronounced to help in some cases in which the point of pronunciation is not clear

or looks similar to another sound example /ᵐ/ Mark /ᵖ/ Park. Cued Speech Method was designed

“to remove ambiguity from lip/reading by assigning similar-looking phonemes to different

handshapes and placements” (National Cued Speech Association, 2006). The lip-reading

technique (Morávková, 2011) is a complement to understand and facilitate the communication

between a hearing and a deaf speaker. Considering the previous point and the fact that the

28
majority of the deaf or hard hearing students are born in hearing families (Castro, 2002), the

relation with the syntax could be a problem. Chilean Sign Language and American Sign

Language are languages which have their own rules. The writing form in both languages do not

have coincidences with sign language structures thus the Fitzgerald Key is used in the process of

literacy.

29
Methodological framework

School Background

The name of the school is Escuela Especial Anne Sullivan RBD 9728, it is located in

Padre Hurtado avenue 9839, Location 29 (Ex Los Morros), El Bosque. It is a public school

which attends to deaf and hard hearing students with special needs. The Principal is Ana Uribe

Huaiquian. This school was created in 1969 in the government of Manuel Montt under decree-

law N°202 of 1852, as the School Deaf-Mute and became in the first school of its specialty in

South America. The school counts with 10 Differential Teachers and is supported by

phonoaudiologist and social workers. The school is in the service of pre - school and elementary

school and counts with the support of extra programs as school feeding (PAE), Municipal School

Pool, Psychosocial duet and School Health program.

The Group of study is mixed. It counts with two levels in the same classroom ,5th and

6th-grade, a total of 6 students. These students share the condition of Hard Hearing but two of

them have mental disabilities also (Students 5 and 6), that make us unable to work with them

because we do not have the pedagogical preparation to confront their special conditions. Even

though these students are inside the classroom, they could not be evaluated. The participants’ age

average is 14 years and 5 months and all of them use an auditory device which helps them to

hear better; however, they forget to use it sometimes. Their first language is Chilean Sign

Language and the writing skill is the second ability that they have developed.

30
Student Intelligence Auditory Aspect Other Diagnoses Age

Quotient

Students 1 Intellectual Moderate bilateral Monorail 15 years

disability mild hearing loss 7moths

Students 2 Intellectual Severe bilateral Behavioral 14 years 4

disability mild hearing loss disorder under months

pharmacological

treatment

Students 3 Intellectual Profound bilateral 15 years, 4

disability mild hearing loss months

Students 4 Intellectual Profound bilateral General 13 years.

disability hearing loss. developmental

moderate. disorder with

compromised

mental and motor

functions

secondary to

diffuse cerebral

organic damage.

Behavioral

disorder

pharmacological

31
 treatment.

Epilepsy.

Students 5 Intellectual Profound bilateral Behavioral 13 years, 4

disability mild. hearing loss. disorder secondary months.

to organic brain

damage in

pharmacological

treatment.

Students 6 Intellectual Severe bilateral Attention deficit 13 years, 7

disability mild. hearing loss in left with hyperactivity. months.

ear, profound Oppositionist

bilateral hearing disorder.

loss in right ear.

Our interventions were divided in four lessons, in which the main purpose was to teach

vocabulary in English and support it with American Sign Language. Each lesson has a duration

of 90 minutes. The classroom counts with 8 tables and chairs, whiteboard and peripheral visual

resources on the walls. The layout of the classroom permits the students to pay attention to their

classmates and teacher. They are sitting one in front of other, connected between them, it means

they can look directly to each other.

During the first lesson the main contents were daily routines and family members. The

main objective was students would be able to talk about their family routines. Family members

was the connection between the previous knowledge and the new one, meanwhile teacher and

32
students followed the dynamic of “Teach me and I teach you”. This process consisted in the use

of a Power Point presentation in which the contents were presented with their spelling and

supported with pictures. The students compared the sign in their mother tongue and English.

Example Mother in ASL and Mamá in ChSL..

Source: ASLU. (American Sign Language University, 1997 - 2015).

Source: Diccionario Bilingüe Lengua de Señas Chilena-española Tomo II (Acuña R, Adamo

Q, & Cabrera R, 2009).

Students repeat three times every word and then an example created by themselves. For

instance, 'My mother eat breakfast '.

33
 When we talked about daily routines, the students presented the first problem, they did

not know the meaning of the word routine neither remember a sign for this word, so the head

teacher did an explanation and showed some synonym signs for that word, for that reason the

vocabulary must be shorter, because of the quantity of information and signs that the students

needed to learn and the few times that they had for it. Then, the students developed a matching

exercise in which they connected a picture with a representative sentence.

In the second intervention the contents were the same plus the personal pronouns. We

need to make a clarification about these signs mainly because the students became a little more

independent and they needed to clarify the differences between Chilean and American signs.

Then, they cut some pictures and painted the personal pronouns in their notebooks. Finally, we

taught how to use some websites to support the learning process in an independent way also

because these websites would be useful in the creation of the draft at the end of the project.

The first platform presented to students was Google Translate https://translate.google.cl/.

It was decided to begin with this platform because it gave students the possibility to correct

some spelling rules that for hearing students are less common, for instance ,the final vowels in

words like hermano /hermana, in Spanish we only change a vowel, but in English there is a

different word for each one.

34
 The second platform was Cambridge Diccionary online Spanish /English

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/espanol-ingles/.This platform is really attractive

and able to give the students some words in different contexts. For example, the word casa

which has the words home, house, etc.

Finally, and probably the most important platform is American Sign Language Dictionary

https://www.handspeak.com/word/.The relevance of this platform is the use that students are

35
going to give since now. They, as Spanish speakers, knew english words but only through the

use of spelling or dactological spelling, it means letter by letter until finishing the word they

were able to mention. Now, they can complement their own English vocabulary according to

their own motivation. Similar to the previous platform American Sign Language Dictionary has

the capacity to give more than one word related with the main words that the student needs to

know how sign. Following with the previous example, the word house.

House

One of the best characteristics of this platform is the options about speed of the sign and

the simple meaning for each word. As a homework, the students needed to create a draft about

their family routines, in which they had to include at least four examples for each member. It

was considered just four members for each one and it was assumed that more than one morning

routine would be repeated for each member. Also, it was exposed an example in order to place

the structure ignoring the use of 3rd person singular spelling rules, because the activity’s

objective was focused on teaching vocabulary instead of grammar rules. For instance, the

sentence “my mother goes to work”, in American sign language has three movements.

36
 During the 3rd intervention the instructions were exposed in a power point presentation

and also in American sign language. The main objective of the class was writing the draft of the

oral presentation, which was given as a homework in the previous class, in the platform

emaze.com. The students did not develop the homework, their justifications were not related to

the use of English, they just argued did not remind to develop the task. Students 1 and 4 did not

attend to class for personal reasons (Student 4 was not considered in the research, even though

she participated in some activities) and Student 6 presented behavior problems, as a result he left

the classroom to talk with the inspector about his conduct. According to the teacher in charge of

the group in a posterior interview, she explained this student presented conduct problems during

all the last week mainly because he was not accepted in another school and he could not tolerate

the frustration.

In view of time it was decided to create an account in emaze.com to work in the creation

of the presentation and develop the draft at the same time. The platform Google Translate was

used by students in case that they wanted to incorporate new words in their vocabulary. The third

intervention counted with three students, one of them is not considered in the research but he

developed different activities as games in English related with the content “Family and Morning

routines”. Meanwhile, Students 2 and 3 were writing, a second problem was presented. Student 2

stopped working because did not want to include a family member in his presentation. Being in

charge of the class, it was needed to negotiate a solution of the problem and could appreciate

how vulnerable were the students emotionally and respecting their personal lives. As a solution

he accepted to include part of his extended family members which he really esteemed to keep

working without any problem.

37
 At the beginning of fourth intervention, the researcher asked students about the Emaze

presentation that was supposed to be done (because of the restricted time some task had to be

done as homework). However, none of the students developed the activity expressing no specific

reasons. Previously it was considered the possibility to encounter this kind of inconvenient, thus

it was prepared an oral interrogation based on mute flashcards and a Socrative test which was a

written version.

38
Results
The writing test was developed in the platform Socrative and it was focused on testing

how much students remember about the family vocabulary and Morning routines chunks. The

test counted with 15 questions with 3 options of multiple choice each one, three of them were

only vocabulary in isolated way without visual aids with the purpose of activating the visual

memory on spelling words. Then, the rest of the questions were accompanied by visual aids.

Considering the nine morning routines which were taught in classes, the researcher only included

eight, the expression get ready was difficult to identify by students in order to interpret in

context.

The thematic of the test was the use of interpretation from English to Spanish using the

Grammar Translation Method as a strategy to corroborate if students internalized the vocabulary

worked in classes. Each Morning routine sentence included the use of a family member as a

subject of the sentence as Word Order without Objects (Jay, 2011).

The studied group was integrated by 6 students previously mentioned, and two of them

were not evaluated. Despite of his condition, student 5 was able to develop a writing test. The

range of average in the results were 11 correct answer from a total of 15 questions. Having

Student 2 the higher results and Student 3 the lower results. As a common pattern of mistakes,

we can appreciate that usually students confuse the last vowel in words on their mother tongue,

as hermano or hermana. As the example shows:

39
 Meanwhile, some students were finishing their test, who already finished the test had an

Oral interrogation. This evaluation contemplated the use of flashcards about family members and

morning routines. Students may be able to sign the word or create a sentence using it. In this

examination, just six family members’ words were included, leaving aside extended family as

aunt, uncle and cousin. This last word had an interpretation according to each gender in sign

language, literally is interpreted as Female-Cousin and Male-Cousin (Lapiak, 1996-2018).

At the beginning of the interrogations, students were nervous, anyone was able to answer

the sign without help. Students chose three flashcards about family members and three about

morning routines. Each flashcard was supported by a picture, then the students answered using

the equivalent sign.

As a result of the interrogation, students showed better results memorizing morning

routines chunks than family members’ isolated vocabulary. They used to confuse the American

Sign Language signs with their mother tongue sign language.

40
Conclusion

At the beginning of the investigation it was proposed the objective of teaching English

Vocabulary as a second language to Chilean Hard Hearing Students. Thus, the lexical approach

through applying the direct method was elected as methodology. The strategy would be to use

American sign language to introduce the foreign vocabulary and it was expected that students

internalized these new sign movements and complemented it with lip reading technique. As

Brown (2000) mentioned, the acquisition of a new language using the direct method does not

require to integrate translation as a class procedure.

Despite of the fact that theoretical background pointed out that the Direct Method could

be the most effective it had less impact than what was expected at the beginning of the

implementation. Instead, Grammar Translation method was successful and suitable. Besides, it

was established that visual aids had a great impact in hard hearing students learning. The usage

of ICT facilitated the internalization of chunks and signs in English. Furthermore, they fomented

autonomy in hard hearing students. Thus, it became a bridge between foreign language and

student’s meaningful contents even those which were not part of the curriculum.

Due to a series of factors such as age features, participants of the study were not in early

childhood as Brown suggested. Besides, social environment and cognitive limitations provoked

that the use of direct method were no longer successful as unique method. Despite that the

method was effective in small interventions, it was necessary to introduce Grammar Translation

method because students were confused about the usage of signs. Some of the ASL signs were

similar to ChSL signs but the meaning was completely different. Therefore, in order to avoid

communicative problems it was required to give a clear translation of signs. Besides, some ASL

signs do not have an equivalent in ChSL or students did not know them, as it was mentioned in

41
the first intervention. Visual aids had a positive impact in the students learning because it

improved visual memory which is a strength in hard hearing people. In addition, it enhanced

connection between image and grapheme which is also related to the use of ASL. Finally, ICT

application had the anticipated impact because it is a permanent input which could be constantly

reviewed by students at any time even out of classroom. As consequence, students increased

their autonomy using ICT to expand their management of a second language, consistent with

their needs. The use of chunks increased with the implementation of ICT in the experience,

backing visual memory and the sign language in English.

As hearing English pedagogy students, the first limitation was the use of the national sign

language (Chilean sign language) propelled by the idea of teaching English to standard groups of

students who would present transitory or cognitive special needs but rarely permanent and

substantial inabilities as deafness. In addition, there is a scarcity of American sign language

speakers in Chile or specialists who are familiar with the training of it. At the same time, the

social movements which promote the equality of rights of deaf culture have not had a direct

access to the information or coaching to make reachable the opportunity of managing both sign

languages. Even though bibliography was limited at the beginning, meanwhile the project was in

progress new stimulating aspects of it were discovered. Due to this kind of investigation in

recent, a significant number of resources could not be included because of their delayed finding

or restricted access. Then, the availability of schools was limited by their administration,

considering that deaf community is a minority in our society, the school access is restricted by

the location of those. Finally, inside the school and classroom, the students had some extra

conditions which were not taking account at the beginning, such as group management of

classes with extremely complex cognitive and mental conditions. Since, at the moment of

42
developing English classes, students did not have previous knowledge related to the use of a

second language. It was assumed the main reason was personal background or cultural factors.

Additionally, the educational policies had excluded English as a subject in schools with special

needs. However, since this year and in order to be coordinated with new special needs’ schools

law it is compulsory to refund its teaching. On the other hand, English class time was interrupted

in more than one opportunity by activities related with school routines which came from

direction or extra programmatic activities which interrupted the learning process.

It is imperative to continue and develop further investigations about teaching English to

deaf people. Firstly, it is a brand-new issue in Chilean educational context, which left our

country behind new methodologies and strategies to integrate in an effective way to deaf

community. Chile may expand hard hearing people opportunities creating spaces for their

development specially in languages area. Moreover, it was mentioned the fact that could be

possible to asset innovative and meaningful information which might complement this research

in order to develop new techniques to teach a second language to deaf students.

43
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