Abstract:

The S.L. (Sign Language) is the mother tongue of people with H.D. (hearing disability), this language is their main way of communication which supports them to developing and learning new languages. Nevertheless, this communication process is limited because the S.L. is unknown in society and also changes its vocabulary according to geographic, ethnic and other factors. That fact segregates the S.L. users from the rest of the people.

On the other hand, according to Kožuh (2016) and Marschark (2009), the W.L. (Written language) represents a fundamental tool for communication on the environment because it is quite diffused and the majority of the information is expressed through it. Therefore, the W.L. is a second language for people with H.D. and learning it is very important for them, in spite of the learning process could be difficult and slow. These learning problems are often caused because of the inadequate methodologies taught at the special education centers for H.D. students.

This investigation arises from the idea of implementing teaching methods of foreign languages on literacy learning for deaf people. Starting with not-traditional methods that present information on it context, without grammatical rules and decontextualized words. Also, it uses games for supporting the students and increasing their interest, attention and motivation. ICT (Information and Communications Technology) tools were used for streamline the reader process whit a broad visual content that improves the scholar activities of H.D students.

In this article, we studied the performance of a prototype teaching tool (game), made of a mixture of methodologies and games, where students whit H.D. interacted face to face with a virtual group interface and across many activities (Character selection, Stories creation, reviews, competitions and points), they studied literacy information. This process was realized through a case of study in a modality of convenience displaying, divided in three phases. On the first one, the students were asked to read a short text, select related images, write a short text from similar images and answer some questions. On the second phase, six sessions of learning were accomplished with the developed tool, and on the third phase, similar activities to the first phase were done; later results would be compared in order to perceive the effects of the tool on learning students. The performances of each participant were evaluated based on the criteria used by H. Fernandez (2016) and A. Kida (2010), on their studies of the reading and writing evaluation.

References:
[1] Herrera Fernández, V., Chacón Macchiavello, D., & Saavedra Coronado, F. (2016). Evaluación de la escritura de estudiantes sordos bilingües. Estudios Pedagógicos (Valdivia), 42(2), 171–191.
[2] Kida, A. de S. B., Chiari, B. M., & Ávila, C. R. B. de. (2010). Escalas de avaliação da leitura e da escrita: evidências preliminares de confiabilidade. Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica, 22(4), 509–514.
[3] Kožuh, I., Hintermair, M., & Debevc, M. (2016). Community building among deaf and hard of hearing people by using written language on social networking sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, 295–307.
[4] Marschark, M., Sapere, P., Convertino, C. M., Mayer, C., Wauters, L., & Sarchet, T. (2009). ARE DEAF STUDENTS' READING CHALLENGES REALLY ABOUT READING?. American Annals Of The Deaf, 154(4), 357-370.

Keywords:

Hearing disability, Learning Literacy, Teaching methods of foreign language, Games, Virtual Interface, Design.