Effects of Reading Literacy Resources on Acquisition of English Language Skills among Grade One to Three Learners with Hearing Impairment in Western Kenya

Abstract

Since the year 2016, the results of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education have shown that learners with hearing impairment in Western Kenya perform poorly in English Language. The results for 2016 showed that these learners scored a mean of 26.78 in 2016 and a mean of 25.98 in 2017. Scholars correlate under performance in languages with unavailability of early reading literacy resources. Children with hearing impairment need linguistically rich environments in order to acquire sign language. Acquisition of their first and second language affects their literacy development. This study was guided by the Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition developed. He postulates that the acquisition of a given language has to occur within some environment setting and in consonant with the social aspects of the human existence. The study sought to determine the effect of available professionally trained personnel on acquisition of English language skills among learners with hearing impairment in Western Kenya. The researcher used a mixed methods approach and Stratification to randomly sample 63 teachers of English language, 100 learners with HI, 9 head teachers, 4 county education officials and 24 non-teaching staff. Split-half split testing was used to test reliability while face and content validity of the research instruments was ensured by the supervisors. Data was collected using questionnaires, observation and interview schedules. It was analyzed both descriptively and inferentially and reports presented in narrative form. Results showed that over 53.3% (32 out of 60)respondents contended that teachers have not been effectively helping grade one to three learners with hearing impairment to develop English language skills reading using available literacy resources in western Kenya. The teaching staff had significant positive linear relationship of 18.9% (r = 0.189**, P<0.01) with acquisition of English language skills therefore significant low influence led to a conclusion that most teachers were not fully utilizing their acquired skills in instructing learners in schools for hearing impaired in special schools in Western Kenya. The researcher recommended that teachers in special schools in western Kenya should be encouraged to fully utilize their acquired skills to improve the learners’ literacy skills.