Teaching of the Quran and Hadiths Using Sign Language to Islamic Boarding School Students with Hearing Impairment

Abstract

Islamic boarding school students with hearing impairment experience speech, language, and communication barriers due to their hearing impairment. The teaching of the Quran with standardized fluent pronunciation and of hadiths with complex sentences needs to be adjusted according to the disabilities of these students. The purpose of this research is to describe the teaching pattern of the Quran and hadiths which has been adjusted for Islamic boarding school students with hearing impairment at Darul Ashom Islamic Boarding School for the Hearing Impaired, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This research used a qualitative approach with a case study design with observations, interviews, and documentation as the data collection techniques with five teachers and five students selected using the purposive sampling method. Validation of the research instrument was done by expert judgment, while data reliability was determined through data triangulation. Data analysis was carried out by condensing the data, presenting the data, and then drawing conclusions. The results show that the students at Darul Ashom learn to read and memorize the Quran using the hijaiyah (Arabic letters) sign language through four learning stages. This included introducing the hijaiyah sign letters, parsing and stringing the letters to those in the Quran, reading the mushaf and memorizing using the hijaiyah sign letters, and then writing down the memorized letters (kitabah). In addition, the hadiths were taught using four stages, namely specifically simplifying the sentences, interpreting using sign language, explaining the meaning, and repeating (takrar) the important words or phrases in sign language. This study also shows the importance of teacher awareness in each stage of the students’ learning process based on differences in cognitive abilities by adjusting the learning objectives and the length of each student’s learning stages. The findings of this research indicate that the use of sign language when learning the Quran and hadiths, which is carried out in various stages, can help children with hearing impairment at Islamic boarding schools. It is hoped that using the description in this study will be a solution to the learning problems encountered by children with hearing impairment in other institutions. Furthermore, it is hoped that further research can examine the group dynamics that occur when learning the Quran and hadiths with sign language for children with hearing impairment so that appropriate group-dynamic content can be developed in the learning model.