PATRICIA PRITCHARD British to-handed alphabet TEFL for deaf pupils in Norwegian bilingual schools: Can deaf primary school pupils acquire a foreign sign language? Norwegian one-handed alphabet Masters Thesis in Special Education Dept. of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences & Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, Norway December 2004 Summary TEFL for deaf pupils in Norwegian bilingual schools: Can deaf primary school pupils acquire and understand a foreign sign language? Both hearing and deaf people in Norway need skills in English to cope with the demands of modern society. The question is how can deaf pupils best acquire English? A National Curriculum was implemented in 1997 (L97) based on sign bilingualism and a socio-cultural approach to language learning. British Sign Language (BSL) was introduced into the English syllabus for Primary School deaf pupils as a first step in foreign language learning, before the introduction of English. The curriculum for deaf pupils (EfDP) was implemented without research underpinning and further education of in-service teachers, although some teaching aids were produced. This study looks at the BSL receptive skills of Norwegian Deaf pupils in class 4. and tries to pinpoint variables that played a part in their acquisition of BSL. The study makes use of theories created for hearing children acquiring a second spoken language. This is seen as defensible because they deal with the acquisition of languages of the same modality. A quantitative method was chosen to answer the research question of whether deaf Norwegian pupils in class 4 understood BSL and three language tests were used to measure their BSL receptive skills. A control group consisting of bilingual deaf Swedish children were given the same tests. Questionnaires were used to collect background information from the pupils’ teachers. The data was analysed using SPSS and Size Effect statistics (Cohen’s d). Results and conclusions: Norwegian deaf pupils’ experiences with BSL in the EfDP classroom have had a positive effect on their BSL receptive skills. Pupils could understand a certain BSL text if they had been given adequate access to BSL. Pupils may be using their knowledge of BSL to solve the task, but also intuitively transferring L1 knowledge, meta- linguistic strategies and world knowledge. There is reason to believe that Norwegian pupils generally have good NSL skills due to early exposure to the language. All the pupils showed interest in BSL and despite shortcomings in the learning environments, 46,6% scored above the standardised score for deaf British pupils of the same age on the Grammar Test. Hearing status seemed to dictate teachers’ organisation of TEFL, choice of teaching aids and, as a consequence, the quantity and quality of access to BSL, which in turn influenced pupils’ test results. Deficiencies in the learning environment revealed in this study are probably widespread and need to be addressed at all levels in the system i.e. in-service teachers particularly need further education in EfDP. More research is necessary into deaf pupils’ SLA and whether aspects of their experiences with BSL are transferable to learning English. Sammendrag TEFL for norske døve elever i tospråklige undervisningsmiljøer. Kan elever i 4. klasse tilegner seg og forstår BSL? Behovet for kunnskaper i engelsk er stort for så vel hørende som døve personer i Norge i dag. Vi vet lite om hvordan døve best kan tilegne seg engelsk. Etter innføring av L97 og lære- planen engelsk for døve, ble undervisning av et fremmed tegnspråk, Britisk tegnspråk (BSL) en del av pensumet for døve elever på barneskoletrinnet som en introduksjon til fremmed- språkslæring (FLL). Dette ble gjort uten forutgående forskning omkring døve barns FLL eller videreutdanning av lærerne. Imidlertid var en del læremidler produsert. Læreplanen bygger på tospråklighet og en sosiokulturell tilnærming. Denne undersøkelsen er gjort for å utforske hvilke reseptive ferdigheter i BSL norske døve elever i 4. klasse hadde tilegnet seg og hvilke variabler som så ut til å fremme tilegnelse av et fremmed tegnspråk. Teoriene om normalt hørende elevers tilegnelse av fremmede talespråk ble brukt som grunnlag fordi de omhandler tilegnelse av språk som har samme modalitet som morsmålet og betingelsene for døve barn til å lære et fremmed tegnspråk er sammenlignbare med de for normalt hørende barn som lærer et fremmed talespråk. En kvantitativ metode var valgt for å undersøke reseptive ferdigheter i BSL hos alle døve elever i 4. klasse 2003 – 2004. Tre språktester ble brukt. En kontrollgruppe av svenske døve barn gjennomgikk de samme testene. Bakgrunnsinformasjon ble samlet fra lærerne ved hjelp av spørreskjemaer. Data ble analysert ved bruk av SPSS og Effect Size statistikk (Cohen’s d). Resultater og konklusjon: Døve elevers erfaringer i klasserommet har hatt en positiv effekt på deres reseptive ferdigheter av BSL når elevene har fått tilstrekkelig tilgang til BSL. Elevene har brukt sin kunnskap om BSL, og kanskje også overført sin intuitiv kunnskap i norsk tegnspråk (NTS) og sin metalingvistisk kunnskap for å løse oppgaven. Interessen for BSL var tilstede hos alle informanter. På grammatikktesten skåret 46,6% av de norske elevene over det standardiserte skåre for døve engelske elever i samme alder. Uten måleinstrumenter, er det nærliggende å tro at elevene generelt har gode ferdigheter i NTS. Hørselsstatus ser ut til å være det som påvirker lærernes valg av organisering av undervisningen og læremiddelbruk, og dette hadde igjen en sterk innvirkning på elevenes testresultater. Ulike former for svakheter i undervisningsmiljøene som er avdekket bør bøtes på: lærerne har særlig behov for videreutdanning i faget engelsk for døve elever slik at de får en bedre forståelse av prosessene involvert i fremmedspråklæring. Det er behov for mer forskning om hvordan døve elever tilegner seg fremmedspråk og hvordan erfaringer med BSL kan overføres til opplæring i engelsk. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my pupils who set this whole process in motion so many years ago and the staff of Lillesund School who let us find our own way of tackling the subject of English. Thank you to all the pupils and teachers who so willingly took part in this project! Thanks to my employer, Vestlandet kompetansesenter for giving me the time and opportunity and to bury myself for periods of time, and to my colleagues for their support, especially Thor-Arne, Torill and Ellinor. I would also like to thank my fellow students, who made student-life very enjoyable! I would also like to acknowledge and thank Ros Herman, Bencie Woll and Sally Holmes for giving me permission to adapt the BSL Receptive Skills Test for use with Norwegian pupils and Rachel Sutton-Spence and Bencie for permission to use illustrations from their book The Linguistics of BSL. I would like to thank Bencie again and Claire Wickham for invaluable conversations about the study and to Sara Hetherington and Christina Kryvi who never say no when asked for assistance! Thanks also to Randi Natvig for her invaluable help. Last but not least, thanks to my mentors Per Frostad and Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen, who have given generously of their time and knowledge and guided me throughout … Haugesund, December 2004 INDEX Summary (English version) Sammendrag (Norwegian version) Acknowledgements Index List with abbreviations and Norwegian equivalents Page CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction of the theme 1 1.1 The development of my interest in foreign language teaching for deaf pupils 1 1.2 Deaf pupils and the Norwegian school system 3 1.3 The premise for this study 6 1.4 The aim of this study 8 CHAPTER 2 A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND THE RESEARCH QUESTION 2.0 Who are the deaf? 9 2.1 What is “Sign Language”? 11 2.2 Elements of BSL 12 2.2.1 The phonems of signed language and conventions used in glossing signs 12 2.2.2 The elements of BSL that are assessed in the tests used in this study 13 2.3 Are BSL and NSL related or similar in any way? 16 2.3.1 Similarity in lexicon 17 2.4 Communication between deaf people of different nations 18 2.5 Second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language learning (FLL). 19 2.6 An overview of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories 20 2.6.1 Cognitive theories of SLA 22 2.6.2 Linguistic-oriented theories or Universal Grammar Theory 23 2.6.3 Pragmatic approaches to SLA 23 2.6.4 Social theories or theories of discourse 24 2.6.5 Behaviourist learning theory and SLA 25 2.6.6 Krashen’s psycholinguist theory of SLA 25 2.7 Teaching methods used in TEFL 29 2.8 Metalinguistic knowledge and awareness 31 2.9 The definition of curriculum and criticism of the implementation of reforms (R97 and L97) in relation to deaf pupils 31 2.10 The purpose of this study 33 2.10.1 The research question 34 CHAPTER 3 THE METHOD 3.1 The quantitative research approach 36 3.1.1 The sample and gaining access to the field 36 3.2 Why test BSL receptive skills in class 4? 37 3.2.1 Why test the pupils’ receptive skills in BSL and not their expressive skills? 37 3.3 The instruments for assessing receptive skills in BSL 38 3.3.1 The development of Assessing BSL Development Test and criticism 39 3.3.2 A description of the first sub test: BSL Vocabulary Test 41 3.3.3 A description of the second sub test: BSL Grammar Test 43 3.3.4 A description of the third sub test: BSL Story Test 45 3.4 The pilot study of the complete test 49 3.5 The control group 49 3.6 Carrying out the tests in Norway 50 3.7 The questionnaires 51 3.7.1 Questionnaire