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Impact of Escalating Literacy Demands on English Learners with Hearing Loss Top Lang Disorders Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 171–193 Copyright c 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. Impact of Escalating Literacy Demands on English Learners With Hearing Loss Linda I. Rosa-Lugo and Barbara J. Ehren Gainful employment for adults in the United States currently requires high levels of literacy. As challenging as these requirements may be for the workforce at large, for adults who have a hearing loss (HL) and whose first spoken language is not English, the demands are especially problematic. Therefore, it is critical that educators prepare English learner (EL) K-12 students with HL for life beyond school by understanding and addressing the underlying language of curriculum. The authors explore the escalating literacy demands of the workforce and the corresponding spoken and written language demands of more rigorous K-12 curriculum standards. They highlight the specific challenges of EL children and adolescents with HL who are acquiring English as a second spoken language. They make the case for a more robust collaborative approach, involving multiple perspectives, rather than “teamwork,” in addressing the needs of these students across the grades, with intercultural competence as a major component in engaging families as partners. Key words: children and adolescents with hearing loss, collaboration in education, Common Core State Standards and D/HH, ELs with hearing loss, listening and spoken language in D/HH, literacy acquisition in D/HH, workforce literacy HE GOAL of preparing graduates of Amer- have a hearing loss (HL) and those with T ica’s public schools to be college and hearing who are English learners (ELs). For career ready, given the workforce demands of students who are ELs and have a HL, the our society, has resulted in increasing literacy challenges are exponentially greater. requirements in elementary and secondary In this article, the authors discuss current schools (Ehren & Murza, 2010). Although workforce literacy requirements faced by EL more robust literacy skills and strategies adults with HL, the current employment pic- pose challenges for many students, there ture, and the escalating K-12 language/literacy are specific populations for whom literacy requirements geared to preparing a literate cit- proficiency has been especially problematic izenry in today’s world. This discussion pro- and will likely be more so with increased vides the backdrop for exploring problems demands. Among these are students who likely encountered by K-12 students who have HL, with a focus on those acquiring listen- ing and spoken language in English when the Author Affiliations: Department of first language (L1) is another spoken language. Communication Sciences and Disorders, College of It should be noted that, although children Health and Public Affairs, University of Central and adolescents learning English whose L1 is Florida, Orlando. American Sign Language can be considered The authors have indicated that they have no financial ELs, that is not the way EL is used in this and no nonfinancial relationships to disclose. article. The term “EL” herein refers to those Corresponding Author: Linda I. Rosa-Lugo, EdD, who are acquiring English when their L1 is an- Department of Communication Sciences and Disor- ders, College of Health and Public Affairs, University other spoken language, for example, Spanish, of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816 (Linda.Rosa- Kreyol,` or Mandarin. The authors make the [email protected]). case for a collaborative approach in address- DOI: 10.1097/TLD.0000000000000157 ing the needs of these students and discuss 171 Copyright © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. 172 TOPICS IN LANGUAGE DISORDERS/JULY–SEPTEMBER 2018 the instructional issues related to supporting lenging for adults with HL whose first spo- them across the grades. ken language is not English? Identification of workforce demands has been on educa- EDUCATION IN AN ERA OF tors’ radar for some time. In the latter part GLOBALIZATION of the 20th century, efforts were directed to- ward identifying skills needed in the chang- The purpose of schooling and the def- ing workplace. For example, the New Stan- inition of success for those matriculating dards Project (National Center on Education have changed markedly over the last century. and the Economy, 1998) identified nine ar- When the United States achieved status as a eas of competence for the workplace: col- world leader in the 19th and 20th centuries, lecting, analyzing, and organizing informa- the demands for formal education were dif- tion; communicating ideas and information; ferent from what they are now in the 21st planning and organizing resources; working century. For example, a seventh- or eighth- with others and in teams; using mathematical grade reading level was all that was required ideas and techniques; solving problems; using of most citizens to prepare them for the world technology; understanding and designing sys- of work (Tucker, 1996). In that context, grad- tems; and learning and teaching on demand. uation from high school might not have been Clearly, most of these areas involve spoken necessary to lead a productive life as an adult, and written language competencies, which to contribute to one’s nation’s way of life, are bound to be a challenge for adults with HL and, ultimately, to maintain one’s status in who are learning English as another spoken the world. Even for those completing high language. school, the inherent rigors cannot compare A focus on defining workplace demands with graduation requirements today. For the continued into the 21st century. In 2003, United States to remain competitive in the the enGauge report (North Central Regional worldwide marketplace (Partnership for 21st Educational Laboratory and the Metiri Group, Century Skills, 2008, 2010), its educational 2003) identified critical skill clusters: digital- system must become more robust to prepare a age literacy, inventive thinking, effective workforce that can meet the challenge. There- communication, and high productivity. In fore, it is important to view globalization as thinking about workers with HL learning a significant force behind escalating educa- English as another spoken language, the areas tion requirements (Casner-Lotto & Barrington, of digital-age literacy and effective commu- 2006) and to reflect on the demands it places nication appear most challenging. Under on the workforce. digital-age literacy, enGauge included basic literacy along with traditional and media- Workforce demands based prose, documents, and communication By 2020, 65% of jobs in the United encountered in everyday living and across States will require postsecondary education reading, writing, listening, and speaking. (Carnevale, Hanson, & Gulish, 2013). Given Also included was information and techno- that reality, K-12 education must prepare stu- logical literacy, involving recognizing when dents for advanced education, not just for jobs information is needed, locating information, after high school. Furthermore, many of the evaluating all forms of information, synthe- occupations will be in STEM (science, tech- sizing, and using information effectively. In nology, engineering, and math) disciplines the area of effective communication, they (Villorio, 2014), which the Bureau of Labor identified the ability to communicate with Statistics projects to grow to more than 9 mil- individuals and groups in a positive manner, lion by 2022 (Richards & Terkanian, 2013). including teaming and collaboration, interper- What are these demands and which of sonal skills, and interactive communication, them would appear to be particularly chal- all of which are related to one another. Copyright © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Impact of Literacy Demands on ELs With HL 173 Considering these identified skills, although of the individuals who are deaf (47%) were communication is named as a specific set of not in the labor force compared with less than competencies that involves language, clearly, a quarter (23%) of hearing people. A greater most of the 21st century workforce compe- number of men who are deaf (56%) were tencies also involve language in some form found to be in the labor force than women or another. For example, inventive thinking (47.7%). By far the largest factor accounting requires knowledge obtained from listening for lack of labor force engagement is the pres- and/or reading, accompanied by higher level ence of additional disabilities. In addition, em- language for problem solving and other cog- ployment experiences are not the same for all nitive processes. people who are deaf. Experiences by race, ethnicity, and gender for individuals who are Performance in the workplace deaf vary widely. For example, women who Knowledge of the demands of the work- were Hispanic and deaf were found to have force prompts inquiry into the success of the lower average annual income than those clas- workforce as a basis for discussing educa- sified as White, and women who were Native tion’s response to workforce readiness. Unfor- American and deaf had the lowest employ- tunately, widespread concern exists for per- ment rates. formance of adults across the board, let alone Employment experiences are closely tied for those with specific language challenges, to individuals’ educational attainment. Stud- such as those who have HL and are acquiring ies indicate that the employment gap between English. For example, it has
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