Deaf and hard of hearing children in the German language classroom in Austria: perspectives of inclusive pedagogy

Beschreibung

On the way towards inclusive German language teaching for Deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) students in Austria, the cooccurrence of two languages in different modalities – like German and Austrian Sign Language – presents a challenge for
many language teachers. By drawing on approaches in the areas of inclusive pedagogy and multilingualism, this
presentation aims to raise awareness that second language teaching of deaf and HoH students should focus primarily on
acquiring written language and makes suggestions of how this can be achieved.
After introducing the current educational situation of deaf and HoH students in Austria , the acquisition of written
language as a second language (Hänel-Faulhaber 2012) for this group will be discussed. The teaching of the five
competencies (pronunciation, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, discourse) in the language classroom should always be
oriented at the individual child and take into account their personal language experiences. Otherwise, there is the risk of
inhibiting learning instead of promoting it. From the perspectives of inclusive pedagogy and bimodal-bilingual education
(Becker et al. 2017), language teaching should aim at the maximum of the possibilities achievable by the individual
students. Therefore, the teaching of German to Deaf and HoH children should focus mainly on the acquisition of written
language competencies. This also requires a different didactic approach, important for the professionalization of teachers.
This presentation shows these approaches and challenges, stressing also the need for promoting phonological awareness,
both of spoken and sign language. Phonological awareness in sign languages is different from phonological awareness in
spoken languages, but it is a relevant resource in the acquisition of written language by Deaf and HoH students (Hager &
Paudel 2019). A main focus here will be on fingerspelling, which can lead to a better written language competence. Finally,
different assessment options in teaching German will be presented.

Zeitraum	16 Sep. 2022
Ereignistitel	Second Language Teacher Education: Challenges and New Horizons
Veranstaltungstyp	Konferenz
Ort	Wien, ÖsterreichAuf Karte anzeigen