Strategies for teaching english to students with hearing impairment in a bimodal-bilingual approach

Abstract

The article describes the main aspects of the problem of teaching English to hearing impairment students as a foreign language in Ukraine.

Based on the results of the theoretical analysis this article identifies and characterizes the features of the three main strategies for teaching English to deaf and hearing impaired students in other countries of the world: oral-aural strategy; partial-lingual strategy; multilingual strategy.

Oral-aural strategy is based on English learning by hearing impaired students on the ground on the use of the national spoken language as a means for teaching English. In this strategy Sign language is not used as a means for teaching English.

Partial-lingual strategy is widespread in Sweden, Denmark, Canada and other countries. According to this strategy, when learning English, hearing impairment students learn only writing and reading as essential components of spoken language. At the same time, auditory perception and English speech are not obligatory for learning in lessons time. Since the mastery of these components of the spoken language essentially depends on the level of hearing impairment of the child, hearing aid technology and other aspects of the child’s development.

Multilingual strategy was developed in Norway. This strategy stipulates that learning of the English language by hearing impairment students takes place in two stages. The first stage is the study of British Sign Language. The second stage is the study of English. This strategy focuses on the formation of Deaf Norwegian students as Deaf British students, who can directly communicate through using the British Sign Language and indirectly communicate using English Spoken Language through its reading and writing forms.