Specific in writing letters in deaf and hard of hearing students

Abstract

Nowadays, speech and writing are considered alternative, equally significant systems of linguistic expression. As a consequence of hearing damage there arise difficulties in the development of verbal speech, hence written speech becomes the basic method of general and linguistic development of deaf and hard of hearing children. Many studies show that children with hearing impairment lag behind children with regular hearing, who are much younger, in developing written expression. Deaf and hard of hearing children adopt a great number of words; however they often do not comprehend their meanings and have difficulty in learning to spontaneously use them in sentences. The aim of our study was to assess the capacity of deaf and hard of hearing students to express themselves by way of written speech and transmit a clear message to the reader. All of the students were given the task to write their parents-friends a letter, the subject of which they would decide upon themselves. The sample consisted of deaf and hard of hearing students attending grades five to seven at two schools for hearing impaired children in Belgrade. It was observed that the students do not know how to ask what interests them (although they know how to do so in direct communication). Their written linguistic expression is characterized by a poor vocabulary and disproportional use of verbs and nouns in relation to other types of words.

Danas se pismo i govor smatraju alternativnim, jednako značajnim sistemima jezičkog izražavanja. Usled oštećenja sluha javljaju se teškoće u razvoju usmenog govora, tako da pisani govor postaje osnovno sredstvo opšteg i jezičkog razvoja gluve i nagluve dece. Mnoga istraživanja pokazuju zaostajanje dece oštećenog sluha u razvoju pisanog izražavanja u odnosu na decu koja čuju a koja su mnogo mlađa. Gluva i nagluva deca usvajaju veliki broj reči, ali često ne shvataju sva njihova značenja i teško nauče da ih spontano upotrebljavaju u rečenicama. Cilj našeg istraživanja bio je ispitati sposobnost gluvih i nagluvih učenika da se izraze putem pisma i prenesu čitaocu jasnu poruku. Svim učenicima je dat zadatak da svojim roditeljima-prijateljima napišu pismo o čemu god žele. Uzorak je obuhvatio gluve i nagluve učenike uzrasta od petog do sedmog razreda koji pohađaju dve škole za decu oštećenog sluha u Beogradu. Uočava se da učenici u pismima ne umeju da pitaju ono što ih zanima (iako u direktnoj komunikaciji to znaju). Njihov pisani jezički izraz karakteriše siromaštvo u vokabularu i nesrazmerna upotreba imenica i glagola u odnosu na ostale vrste reči.