Narrative story-telling in developing signed and written texts for students with hearing loss in Bassa, Plateau state, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Many students with hearing loss start schooling with less or no prior experiences with written or signed narratives. In the school, these students often face serious challenges using narrative-retelling to develop written text. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the students’ narrative written and signed texts development. Methodology: Qualitative design was used to understand the students’ experiences and to answer the research questions that were presented. The narrative stories were both from the students’ experiences and the teachers’ modelled stories. The students’ texts were analysed for common narrative structures such as characters, settings and events. The students were encouraged through the provision of experience stories, where they were asked to tell a story from their personal experiences. The intervention was carried out for 6 weeks. This involved teaching and learning about narrative genre. Two students with hearing loss who were in their third year in junior secondary school were purposefully selected for the study. Two students with hearing loss who were in their third year in junior secondary school were used for the study. Results:The result indicated that most of the students were able to organise information in their written texts well. This suggests that they understood what they were writing about as seen in their written texts. They were able to classify information into main and supporting ideas. They also made connections between previous and new knowledge. Recommendations: Based on findings of the study, it was recommended that teachers of students with hearing loss should be encouraged to use narrative-retelling for training students with hearing loss on written text development.