WELCOME TO KENTERPRO:
INFLUENCE OF SIGN LANGUAGE ON READING SKILLS PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARY FIVE (5) PUPILS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN PLATEAU SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, BASSA

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page-       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -i

Declaration-    –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -ii

Approval page-           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -iii

Dedication-     –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -iv

Acknowledgement-    –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -v

Table of contents-       –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -vi

Abstract-         –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -ix

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the study- –           –           –           –           –           –           -1
• Statement of the problem- –           –           –           –           –           –           -3
• Purpose of the study- –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -3
• Research questions- –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -4
• Significance of the study- –           –           –           –           –           –           -4
• Scope of the Study –           –           –           –           –           –           –           5
• Operational definition of terms- –           –           –           –           –           -5

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1       Concept of Hearing Impairment-            –             –              —             –          6

2.2       The Concept Sign Language  –                       –           –           –           –           – 9

• The Concept Reading Skills  –           –           –           –           –           –           -10

2.4       The factors affecting Reading skills performance of students with hearing   

      impairment      –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -11

2.5       The Influence of Sign Language influence the reading skills

 performance – –           –           –           –           –           –           —          –           15

• Strategies for improving the reading skills performance of pupils with hearing     impairment         –      –           –           –           –           –           –           –           17

2.7       Summary of Literatures Reviewed     –           –           –           –           –           19

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1       Research design-         –           –           –           –           –           –           –           20

3.2       Population and Samaple of the study –           –           –           –           –           20

3.3       Sample and sampling techniques-      –           –           –           –           –           20

3.4       Instrument for data collection-            –           –           –           –           –           -20

3.5         Validity and Reliability of the Instrument           –              –              –          21

3.6       Procedure for Data collection-            –           –           –           –           –           -21

3.7       Method for data analysis-        –           –           –           –           –           –           -21

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1       Presentation of Bio-Data        –           –           –           –           –           –           -22

4.2       Analysis of Research Questions         –           –           –           –           –           -23

4.3       Hypothesis Testing     –           –           –           –           –           –           –           28

4.3       Discussion of Findings                       –           –           –           –           –           28

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1       Summary of Findings-            –           –           –           –           –           –           -31

5.2       Conclusion-     –           –           –           –           –           –           –           –           -32

5.3       Recommendations-     –           –           –           –           –           –           –           33

5.4       Suggestions for Further Study –          –           –           –           –           –           33

REFERENCES-         –           –           –           –           –           –           –           34

APPENDIX                –           –           –           –           –           –           –           37

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was mainly to investigate the Influence of Sign Language on reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa. The population of the study consisted of all students with hearing impairment in Bassa School for the Deaf and as at the time of the study the population is sixty-five (65).        The sampling size for the study was twenty (20) primary five pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire. Mean score and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The finding revealed that severity of hearing loss and the age at which a child develops hearing impairment have a significant impact on their reading skills performance. The learning environment can impact the reading skills performance of primary five pupils with hearing impairment and Parental involvement in a child’s education can play a crucial role in their academic performance. The study also revealed that  Sign Language offers a unique way for pupils with hearing impairment to develop their language skills, including vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, which can enhance their reading comprehension abilities; The use of Sign Language in the classroom can improve the reading skills of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment by promoting a more immersive and engaging learning experience. The study finnaly unveiled that using visual aids in the classroom can be an effective way of improving the reading skills of primary five pupils with hearing impairment. Also incorporating sign language into reading instruction can be an effective strategy. The study recommended that teachers in schools for the deaf should be trained in sign language to enable them to communicate effectively with their pupils. This will help to improve the teaching and learning process and ultimately enhance the reading skills performance of pupils with hearing impairment. The study further suggested that there should be a deliberate effort to expose pupils with hearing impairment to sign language from an early age. This can be achieved through the inclusion of sign language in the curriculum of schools for the deaf.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Children who can hear grow up in a world where sound continually gives them information about what is going on around them. Sounds selectively draw their attention and teach them about their world. As these children grow, sound grows into intelligible language, and this becomes an important means of expression, communication, and learning. In particular, sound is considered to be an important ingredient in learning to read and in achieving reading proficiency (Crowder, 2012).

Children who have hearing impairments cannot rely on sound in the same way to help them gain information about their world. Regardless of how or when they develop their hearing impairment, they must develop a different means of expressing themselves, communicating, and learning. Hearing impaired (HI) children who acquire their hearing impairment before they go to school, especially if they occur before they learn any intelligible spoken language, also have difficulty learning to read (Goswami & Bryant, 2010). Some Hearing impaired children learn a first language that is based on their tactile and visual senses. Not only is this language independent of sound, it does not use the same syntactic rules as spoken or written English (Isenhath, 2010). These children essentially learn a first language that is tactile, visual, and has specific syntactic rules. For some of these children this language is American Sign Language (ASL), while for others it is an idiosyncratic, or pidgin language. However, when they begin school, they must learn a second language, that of the hearing world. This is difficult because this ‘new’ language relies heavily on sound and on a different set of syntactic rules. This may contribute to the often delayed acquisition of and lack of proficiency in reading skills by HI children.

In general, comprehension of written words and whole passages can take place either by recognizing individual words and the meanings associated with them or by instantiating a schema for the theme of a sentence or passage so that certain words and phrases are expected. The recognition of individual sight words is known as bottom-up processing, and, after practice, takes place with little or no effort. The use of contextual or schematic cues to decode a word and/or determine its meaning is known as top-down processing. This is a more arduous task, and one that is assisted by grapho-phonetic cues. That is, if a reader can determine the sound of a word from the shape and sounds of its constituent parts, it may be easier to determine its meaning. Although current theories of the development and teaching of reading in hearing children stress an interactive, concept-driven, top-down kind of processing, bottom-up processing still must take place (Banks, Gray, & Fyfe, 2010). Once words are no longer novel, top-down processing, or sight reading, guides the process of reading. Bottom-up processing, or decoding, becomes automatic for those familiar words. The interaction and relative dependence on top-down or bottom-up processing is quicker and easier for good readers than for poor ones and quicker and easier for hearing readers than for Hearing Impaired ones (Banks et al., 2010).

Sign language is a language that is used by people with hearing impairment to communicate. It is a language that uses manual symbol to represent ideas and concept. According to Riekelhof (2013), it is a term used to describe the language used by deaf people in which both manual signs and finger spelling are employed. Signs usually represent ideas and not single word. Sign language appears an easier mode of communication between the teacher and the pupils, intrinsically the pupils get involved more keenly in learning and acquisition of new information and literacy as well (Tang and Yang, 2017). Combining two modalities of communication such as tactile and kinesthetic channels with auditory and visual modalities, is greatest source of learning and improves learning speed as sign language is composed of both modalities. Use of movements in multimode sign language supports Piaget’s claim of learning and thinking (Barnes, 2010).

Sign languages are natural manual languages that are used by deaf people around the world, and which are functionally and structurally equivalent to spoken languages. In contrast to gestures, sign languages are symbolic, conventionalized, and compositional (Fitzpatrick, Thibert,  Grandpierre & Cyne, 2014). Like spoken languages, sign languages have sub-lexical, lexical and syntactic structures. However, signs are performed manually and perceived visually whereas words are performed orally and perceived aurally. This means that the phonology, relating to the sub-lexical language structure, differs across language modality. In sign languages, the sub-lexical structure is defined based on the formation and movements of hands and arms, as well as place of articulation and nonmanual features (e.g., facial expression) (Brentari, 2011), whereas in spoken languages, the sub-lexical structure consists of speech sounds, produced by forcing air through the vocal tract. The study examines the influence of Sign Language on reading performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa

• Statement of the Problem

We live in an information society where career opportunities are often contingent on literacy, and the inability to read is associated with social exclusion. Children with hearing impairment are at risk of delayed literacy, even when they use technical aids to assist hearing. Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa is a schools for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and have a bilingual curriculum in which sign language is used as a teaching medium. Just as in mainstream schools, acquisition of literacy skills is a major focus. Previous research has shown that among deaf signing children, sign language skill predicts reading ability and that some deaf signing children do become excellent readers. This work investigates the influence of Sign Language on reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa.

• Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate Influence of Sign Language on reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa. The specific objective is to determine

1. Factors affecting the reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa.
2. Impact of Sign Language on reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa
3. Strategies for improving the reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa
   • Research Questions
4. What are the factors affecting the reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa?
5. How does Sign Language influence the reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa?
6. What Strategies for improving the reading skills performance of primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa?
   • Research Hypothesis

Ho: There is no significant relationship between Sign Language and the reading skills performance of pupils with hearing impairment

• Scope of the Study

The Study will be focused on the impact of Sign Language on reading skills performance. It will cover only primary five (5) pupils with hearing impairment in Plateau School for the Deaf, Bassa.

• Significance of the Study

The finding of this study will be used by teachers and teacher trainers to find solutions to ever changing needs and interests of pupils with hearing impairment and appreciate the significance of the use of Sign Language in the teaching-learning of pupils with hearing impairment in relation to academic achievement.

The study will provide data for policy makers line Ministries Non-Governmental Organization and educational leaders in discovering new methods that will enhance and improve reading skills performance among hearing impaired pupils.

It also hoped that the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) of Nigeria may benefit from the findings of this study when coming up with materials and curriculum for Hearing Impaired leaner’s and may assist the institution to design a better curriculum that will accommodate all the necessary skills to help the pupils with hearing impairment participate in academic and social live.

The results of this study to adequately provide learning materials appropriate for reading skills developments to pupils with hearing impairments and teacher use and to fund the special education sector.

The school will further use the study results of this research to advise all affected stakeholders on how to train pupils on set of skills found in the reading skills development.

• Definition of Operational terms

Reading Skills: Reading skills are abilities that pertain to a person’s capacity to read, comprehend, interpret and decode written language and texts.

Sign Language: Sign language is a language that is used by children with hearing impairment to communicate. It is a language that uses manual symbol to represent ideas and concept.

Hearing Impaired: This implies the inability of an individual to hear sounds adequately