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[HLJHLJ]

Does anyone have any experience of second language acquisition in adult students with hearing impairments, or know anyone who does, or of anyone doing research in the area?

I'm particularly interested in any work with students who received cochlear implants at 4+. There is quite a lot of information on raising children with hearing impairments and/or implants bilingually. However, I can't find anything much for adult learners.

[rtm]

[HLJHLJ]

Thank rtm. I had found some of that research, but I hadn't thought of it as SLA, but of course you are right. Although it's not strictly relevant to these students, but it's certainly a start.

The students I have the greatest concerns about in this cohort were never taught to sign, and so had minimal language exposure prior to receiving an implant. (Education of children with disabilities here leaves a lot to be desired).

I have no idea what realistic expectations are. How does learning a second language work if you were never fluent in a first language?

My gut feeling is that if at say age 20, they are still only A2 level for speaking and listening in Spanish, then it's unrealistic to expect them to ever reach B1 in English. If that is the case, should the target level be A2 in English, or is that equally unrealistic and even A1 will be a challenge? Would learning English impact on their Spanish (positively or negatively)? Is there any reason why, with sufficient practice, their English reading and writing skills couldn't surpass those same skills in Spanish?

[rtm]

[HLJHLJ]

Thanks again rtm, the first one in particular is very helpful. Some of the experiences listed there are very encouraging.

My concern over L1 vs L2 level was more about input. If they aren't fluent in Spanish after nearly 15 years of immersion (post implant) I'm doubtful that I can get them to a higher level in English in EFL classes. But perhaps I am (patronisingly) under estimating the potential. I need to find the balance between pushing them to achieve the best they can, without setting them up to fail.

[rtm]

[santi84]

I just went through this recently. I had a student in her 30's, who was low-level in her native language (also Spanish). She clearly had some form of hearing impairment, but nobody was able to truly ascertain what it was (I don't think she even knew). She has been in our program for years, but is still unable to understand simple questions - I frequently heard "yes...yes? yes. huh? no".

In such a circumstance, I drew upon my training as a special needs assistant instead - I provided tons of visuals (large and colourful), and made sure I was within arm's length so that she could see my lips. It helped a little, but I think you are spot-on when it is only realistic to expect proficiency which is, at best, near-equal to the low proficiency in the native language. Not to mention, it took a lot of extra work on my part, just for one student.

If you can look up things like autism visual aids, it helped me a lot in class.

[HLJHLJ]

Thankfully it won't be down to me create the materials, or probably to deliver the course. Although I don't know what special ed training the person who does do it will have (not much, possibly).

The government have passed a law here and the simple version is that every undergraduate must reach B1 in English as part of their course. We have a whole range of students with additional learning needs, and they don't receive an automatic exemption. So will have to come up with some sort of general learning targets that we can take to the government for approval, and then use them to make individual learning plans. But with no data on what a realistic target it, it's hard to know where to pitch it.

[santi84]

[HLJHLJ]

I'm in Ecuador santi. The department is currently planning to adapt a classroom with a hearing loop, more tech, etc, so in that sense we can offer additional accommodation. However, to get exemption from a government regulation we have to be able to show that it's not possible, rather than it just being difficult.

The idea of inclusive education is quite new here, it's quite a steep learning curve for everyone. But I think it's a good thing overall, it's putting pressure on institutions to find ways accommodate additional needs, rather than just writing students off it's too much hassle to work with them.

Hopefully, further down the line this will be less of an issue as people will get better help as children. But for now we have a generation with highly variable educational histories and they need to be accommodated.

[c_destru]

[HLJHLJ]

Thanks for the info! Please let me know how you get on with Spanish as well.

At the moment I'm thinking that we will probably set a target of 1 CEFR level below their Spanish level for each skill, but I don't know whether or not that will be accepted by the government. It might have to be an unofficial/internal target until I can collect some data.

[santi84]

I had a quick meeting with a group of SLPs on Monday, and we discussed this topic. They were pretty adamant on the idea of laptops in the classroom for the use of visuals, although this accommodation wouldn't necessarily suit your class. The overall idea though, was to present simple visuals for the more complex words that required too much explanation. That being said, I'm finding a great deal of problems to come from three sources - the lack of understanding in L1, lack of understanding in L2, and the actual hearing impairment. Can be just one, two, or all three. Also, motivation. It's very challenging for them, the odds are stacked. My particular student is also an angst-ridden teenager...