A study on the approaches of teaching English for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students in the special higher secondary schools (HSS) in south India

Everybody is very much aware of the essentiality of the English language in the lives of 21st-century students for their further studies and successful careers. However, it’s found that society does not pay much attention to the language development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) students and their future by neglecting them as dumb. The majority of people in the deaf community remain at the threshold, which indicates the least number of deaf in the mainstream. The inability to receptive language prevents them from acquiring natural language through communication. Several special schools exist in India for the deaf community, but their effectiveness in language teaching remains to be seen. Considering this fact, the researcher conducted a study to identify suitable English Language Teaching (ELT) approaches for DHH students, to test whether current methods are fruitful or are there any discrepancies, etc. The study was conducted at four special higher secondary level schools for DHH in South India. The data was collected quantitatively by conducting a survey. A writing assessment and a questionnaire were given. After analyzing the results, it was found that many Indian special schools are following oralism and the students are forced to follow lip-reading. Still, the teachers and the school authorities are not supporting Indian Sign Language (ISL), the first language of the Deaf. The study proposes a hybrid way of combining structural approaches with bilingualism and suggestopedia.