Deaf Student at Career College
I recently taught Business Law I to a class of 20 including one deaf student. A sign language interpreter was provided for the student. She was very motivated to achieve and to succeed in the class. She participated by signing her questions and comments; the interpreter spoke for her and signed in response whatever was occurring in class. The most challenging part of her presence in class was the distraction of the interpreter to the other students although that lessened as the course went on. It was a challenging experience for me as an instructor. The student earned a B in the course. She studied very hard and often outperformed the hearing students. Has anyone had a similar experience?
Hi Frank,
Thank you for this information and example of how a deaf student was able to be successful in your course. You have offered some very good advice on ways to help such students answer essay questions. Language acquisition is difficult for many students who are deaf and thus the problem they have with written expression.
Gary
I have just finished teaching an Artificial Intelligence class that had a deaf student in the class. The class is lock-step. The other students interact with the student rather than the interpreters. He did well in the class. He had 2 interpreters (taking turns). He made an excellent presentation (signing to the interpreter and she verbalizing the presentation). He did an outstanding research paper (using ASL and then edited by a tutor). He took quizzes of multiple choice questions, true/false questions and short essay. The one aspect that surprised me was the written responses to short essay questions. There was a flow of words, not necessarily connected as used in written language. Upon further investigation I have subsequently learned that sign language has a high non-sequential aspect. I would urge instructors who might have deaf students to have the interpreter interface between the student and an essay question, especially when sign language is the student’s natural language.
I have in the last several years had many students with various disabilities.
One deaf student was not really deaf but couldnt speak English very well so 'played up' his deafness to get an interpreter. As mentioned in a different post, sign language interpreters may not have 'word' for various automotive terms and this may be compounded when students do not learn 'universal' sign language. This caused a major disruption to class as 'signer' tried to translate. I found Wikkepedia Spanish very helpful, even though I had to search terms in English then look up Spanish version for student, hoping that graphics were the same in both cases as I do not speak Spanish. (Basically, I had to guess that it was the same explanation from diagrams or pictures)
BTW, it is a prerequisit for our school that students should understand english but some will always 'slip through the cracks'
I have also had deaf students in my automotive classes, they are no different than the other students. One of the problems that I have had is that for some of the interpreters have no clue how to interpret some of the components used in the automotive field, and they have to make up something to describe a component or a action. This can lead to frustration from the student. I also encourage the interpretor to understand the subjects at least basically, as they will have to cover roughly 17 different subjects in the complete school. This can lead to a problem also as the same interpretor will not always stay with the same students thru their course. We try to discourage this, but are not always sucessfull
i teach industrial diesel, and i have had def. students in my class. u treat them like every other student, and ignore the interpreter. if they have a question, the the hearing inpaired student should raise there hand like every one else, and u should then address the student,(not the interpreter). lots of times the hearing inpaired student can read lips, so not addressing the student,(looking at the interpreter while u talk), can some times piss them off becouse they can't read your lips.
also , in the subjects that i teach, i talk to the interpreter about reading and knowing the material before the next days lesson, becouse i have to teach in a fairly fast pace to cover the material in the allotted time. becouse of this i don't have time to explain to the interpreter how some thing works , thats up to the student, not the interpreter. plus don't single them out becouse of ther dissabilties, the hearing inpaired know there def., so don't dwell on it, and move on.
Hi Christine,
Having had a number of deaf students take my classes what you described is what I encountered as well. The other students became comfortable with the interpreter and soon the class was flowing smoothly. My deaf students were able to make their presentation either through the use of their own speech or through the interpreter, either way it was a good experience for all.
Gary
