The role of teachers in the academic English literacy acquisition experiences of deaf college students.

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe deaf college students' perceptions of their experiences learning academic English literacy vis à vis their teachers. The study examined the narrated academic English literacy acquisition experiences and practices of 11 deaf and hard-of-hearing students at a hearing university with a large deaf student population. Through paradigmatic analysis of narrative data, the study located common themes, which revealed students' perceptions of academic English literacy acquisition, particularly with regard to their teachers. Methods employed in the study were phenomenological interviewing and recursive analysis. The primary data sources were participant interviews and a focus group. Analysis was conducted through recursive interaction with the data, in which repeated reviews served to first elicit themes and meanings and then confirm interpretation of same. The study resulted in the following findings: Participants' experiences resulted in a preference for instructors who are highly competent communicators, and these tended to be deaf instructors. Participants encountered communication challenges, including the inability of instructors to sign clearly or to understand what their students were saying to them, that restricted their learning. They also perceived instructors to hold expectations that were either too low, unclear, or rigid, which created internal contradictions between challenge and remediation. The study concluded by showing how understanding deaf college students' perceptions of academic English literacy acquisition may inform and improve teaching practices with this population.

المشاركة الأكاديمية وعلاقتها بمهارات تقرير المصير لدى الطلاب الصم بكلية التربية النوعية

“…skills (prepared by the researchers), and the results resulted in the following: that my dimension ( Behavioral participation -emotional participation) on the academic Engagement scale came at a medium level, while the dimensions of (cognitive Engagement, agentic Engagement) came at a low level, and all dimensions of the selfdetermination skills scale came At the average level, and that the total score for him came at the average level, and that there are no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of both male and female deaf students at the Faculty of Specific Education in the total score of the academic Engagement scale and all its subdimensions, and that there are no statistically significant differences between The average scores of both male and female deaf students at the Faculty of Specific Education in the total score of the selfdetermination skills scale and all its sub-dimensions, and there is a statistically significant relationship at the level of significance (0.01) between the behavioral Engagement dimension and all the sub-dimensions of the self-determination skills scale as well as the total score of the skills scale Self-determination, except for the skill of self-management, is not statistically significant.-There is a statistically significant relationship between the cognitive Engagement dimension as well as the total score of the academic engagement scale at the level of significance (0.01) as well as (0.05) with all sub-dimensions of the self-determination skills scale as well as the total score of the scale.-There is a statistically significant relationship at the level (0.05) between the emotional Engagement dimension and each of the skills of self-awareness and self-advocacy from the dimensions of the self-determination skills scale. (Antia et al, 2006;Foster et al, ‫�لتو��سل‬ ‫�سعوبة‬ ‫ب�سبب‬ ‫وذلك‬ ‫وتعلمهم؛‬ 1999; Chute, 2012;Lang, 2002;Teach, 2011;Schmitz, 2009; . Stinson et al, 1996;Tsach & Most, 2016 (Getzel & Thoma, 2008, p. .78).…”