Exploring Teacher Attitudes towards SASL in Saudi Arabia

Jan 17, 2023 | 0 comments

Jan 17, 2023 | Essays | 0 comments

Table of Contents

Introduction

Sign language is as legitimate a language like any other language. It contains all the elements of language: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, etc. It has observable parameters such as a handshake, palm orientation, movement or motion and location (…..). There is a convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and optional protocol devoted to the promotion and encouragement of the use of sign language at major world events and educational institutions (…..).There has been a growing interests for the past two decades globally in researching on usage of sign languages in schools for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) and other Special Educational Needs (SEN) groups. It is significant to differentiate between “deaf” and “Deaf” which are used by different authors. The capitalized “Deaf” mans the individuals who are profoundly or severely deaf and use sign language majorly as their communication means, while “deaf” with no capital letter refers to the individuals with moderate or mild loss of hearing and who are able to communicate through oral approach or total communicating (Ladd, 2003). Watson (2009) also elaborated that the difference is that “Deaf” is also a concept that represents the Deaf community that has shared the history, views and values and whose sign language is the first language. In Saudi Arabia, classification of the students is done as hard of hearing or deaf, based on their hearing loss severity. This study will explore the Teachers beliefs toward Saudi Sign Language (SASL) in Saudi Arabia. This proposal includes the background of the problem, statement of the problem, statement of the purpose, research questions, and research design for the proposed study.

Background of the problem

Avramidis & Norwich (2002, p. 143) stated that the use of categories or labels of disability such as “autistic, ”down’s syndrome” or “physically disabled,” raises the issues in a population, the respondents may have several interpretations for the same category or label. This particularly occurs when the teachers attribute various characteristics of a category or label based on their past experiences or even lack of it, which could be negative or positive and be unpredictable largely across teachers’ population. The paper will briefly review some of the relevant recent literature to conceptualizing D/deafness, disability, Arabic sign language and teachers’ beliefs on Arabic Sign Language. Elshabrawy (2010) indicated that these concepts have been remarkably seen as complex and problematic in the context of Middle Eastern. In this chapter, the paper will discuss the problem and how it is leading to the purpose of the study, the main terminology that are related to teachers’ beliefs on Arabic Sign Language, and key research questions. According to Devlieger (2005), there are various ways in which one could define procedurally Deaf culture, D/deafness: from an educational/academic performance, or socio-cultural perspective or psychological/ psychometric or from medical/pathological or legal/political view point. Each of these perspectives has their own distinctive ways of D/deafness and disability conceptualizing and tension may exists between its different connotations.

According to UNESCO (1995), generally sign language is considered the best way of acquiring knowledge by the deaf students and which can also allow them to access higher education (Ting & Gilmore, 2012, para 1, line 2-6). The paper will briefly review some of the relevant recent literature to conceptualizing Saudi sign language and the beliefs of teachers’ Saudi sign language in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Sign Language is the native language of the Saudi Deaf community. Second language is Arabic. The field of deaf education is relatively new in Saudi Arabia, and much is still required in bringing current trends to deaf studies and deaf pedagogy; this is made painfully clear by the lack of developed resources and relevant training available to deaf educators in the country. The first important event in terms of teacher training in Saudi Arabia was in 1967(……). However, sign language is still inadequately recognized by people outside of Saudi Deaf community. Also, Saudi Arabia lacks a credible amount of focused academic study and research in the area of Deaf communication, including sign language (…..). To this day, there is inadequate documentation of Saudi Sign Language outside of recent publications of rudimentary, amateurish dictionaries. There is no research that shows the beginning of Arabic Sign Language or Saudi Sign language. Even though there are many elderly deaf people who try to represent the good history of Arabic and Saudi Sign Languages, they cannot rely on any documents which support their views. Also, there is no research about the development of these sign languages. There were some efforts to collect some signs in notes for use in teaching deaf children in schools (Alqaruti, & Alsratwi, 2001). These difficulties in regards to the lack of recognition and documentation directly affect Deaf Education and its teachers.
During the extended time since the beginning of the official education of deaf people in Arabic countries, there have been no studies about Arabic or Saudi Sign Language in terms of linguistics or prosody (Alqaruti, & Alsratwi, 2001).

In Saudi Arabia, the real beginning of Saudi Sign Language in schools was in 1964. In fact, certain Arab teachers affected the nature of Saudi Sign Language by adding some signs which were related to their culture. Some Arab teachers used to teach Arabic Signs to children in elementary schools. Interestingly, the male students’ signs were affected by Egyptian teachers while the female students’ signs were affected by Jordanian teachers. This created certain differences between boys’ signs and girls’ signs that still exist today (Alrayes, 2007). Currently, there is intense conflict in regards to the unification of Arabic signs. This conflict has extended to arguments over whether to use Saudi Signs or Arabic Signs in schools and media. Those who favor Saudi Sign Language and are opposed to using United Arabic signs have not supported their views adequately. They have not offered any alternatives or solutions for developing a strong Saudi Sign dictionary, in spite of their plentiful budgets and positions of power. Additionally, it would seem important to allow the parents of deaf children to weigh in with their experience-based opinions about which signs should be used; however, the two parties involved in this rather bureaucratic conflict have not considered the opinions of parents at all (Alqarni, 2010).

During my fifteen years of experience as both a teacher and teaching supervisor, I observed an overall neglect and apathy about the college preparation of Deaf educators. Also, teachers in the Deaf institutes are trained only mechanically in the physicality of sign language, not in pedagogy or child development. A person assumes that because he is skilled in sign language, that this automatically makes him an excellent teacher of the Deaf; however, many teachers of the Deaf lack a belief in the cultural and communicative importance of sign language to the Deaf community. Some teachers view sign language merely as a method, not as a language. This is a fundamental problem in Saudi Deaf education. One example of how this impedes education is that teachers literally must resort to teaching certain subjects by physically acting them out or drawing pictures because sign language is not the approved method for that subject; indeed, no signs may exist which convey the necessary information. One such subject is poetry because it contains figurative language and abstract concepts.

The teachers’ belief or sense of efficacy in making an impact on the performance of students is high and is lower in the efficacy beliefs student engagement compared to strategies for instructions and management of classroom (Garberoglio, Gobble & Cawthon, 2012, abstract). Teachers with high beliefs of efficacy, in general, believe that they can influence the learning of the students, even when teaching the children considered to be challenging to teach. These are teachers when working with less achieving students show more persistence and are even less critical and will not probably refer these students to special education

According to Abu (2013p. 2376, column 2, para 3), teachers lack the necessary knowledge and experience to educate successfully in sign language and this has been shown in their negative attitudes towards inclusion Deaf students in schools. Abu (2013) further pointed out that some researchers have demonstrated that the problem is linked with lack of preserve qualifications to the educators of the deaf students (Monaham et al., 1997 in Abu, 20132376, column 2, para 3, line 5-8). Abu (2013, p. 2377, column 2, para 3, line 10-13) highlighted a study done by Parmer and Cawley (1993) which analyzed the science text book content used in teaching public schools for the hearing impaired students in the intermediate grades. The researchers found out that the teachers did not properly use sign language when teaching, and this led to conceptual losses among the deaf students. Moreover, this resulted in the decreased interest of the students in the subject matter. The findings of Parmer and Cawley (1993) is also echoed by Zahir (1990) who examined the educational problems for the hearing impaired in schools and their effects on the process of education by examining 52 teachers(Abu, 2013 p. 2377, column 2, para 4.).The objectives identified include inadequate teaching skills, inappropriate text books, inflexible programs and special education program with vague objectives.

Morris & Schneider (2012) conducted a study on Saudi Arabian sign language selected morphones to provide the language with a grammatical sketch. From their description, some of the morphemes found by the researchers were unique to Saudi Arabian sign language while others were already identified previously in American Sign Language and European sign languages. Tomita & Kozak (2012) also conducted a study on the unique phonological patterns of Saudi Arabian sign language. Majorly the study focused on the certain SASL signs oscillations and also the weak-hand drop process, and finally made comparisons to three sign languages. Similarly, Young, Palmer & Reynolds (2012) conducted a study which majorly focused on the description of the lexical patterns in SASL. The two selected lexical patterns included metonymy and metaphor in emotion-related signs and objects lexicalization patterns and their derivational roots.

Problem Statement

From the literature, it is clear that there are minimal studies done in the areas of sign language of the Saudi Arabian sign language. The available studies document of areas of language sign with minimal directed to this field. The available literature discusses the teacher’s attitudes, behaviors and motivation towards sign language which is related to the topic under this research (Alshahrani, Norwich & University of Exeter, 2014). The researcher observed, when attempting to locate studies about Saudi Sign Language, he found that no studies exist by Arabic scholars that explicitly address Saudi Sign Language. Many researchers have addressed sign language generally, or even Arabic Sign Language, but none have addressed Saudi Sign Language as a singular topic. Recently, an American scholar at Gallaudet University performed five studies on Saudi Sign Language and wrote his research in English. His studies are based on research performed with Saudi students who were studying at GU at that time. As of now, these are the most—and really, the only—reliable resources available in scholarly discussions of Saudi Sign Language. Because of lack of research related to teachers’ beliefs toward sign language, further research related to teachers’ beliefs towards Saudi Sign Language (SASL) in Saudi Arabia is needed. This calls for a study into this field of research on sign language.

The literature by Humphries & Allen (2009) discusses teachers’ organization to the education of the deaf. Generally Education for the deaf employs two types of approaches in training. One of the approaches is where the teacher instructs the deaf children orally. In this approach, Humphries & Allen (2009p. 162, para 3) stated that sign language in the classrooms is typically not used in any way. The second approach referred to as “manual approach, “total communication” or “simultaneous communication” involves usage of sign language either American Sign Language or some manually coded English. Despite the two approaches having different language orientations, both are built on assumptions that deaf students or deaf children has difficult or unusual cognitive and language patterns of development. Bothe approaches both emphasize on development and assessment of language and speech skills, and both despite using sign language teachers in some classes, only infrequently focus on the sign language development or assimilation into deaf people’s culture.

Purpose statement and research questions

Based on the aforementioned problems, this research will investigate teacher perspectives about considering sign language as a complete language as any other language, the importance of sign language, their abilities in sign language, the general use of sign language in education, the practicality of using sign language to teach, and access to sign language resources and development. This study will be guided by the following research questions

What are the teacher’s beliefs about Deaf students’ acquisition/learning of SASL?
What are the teacher’s beliefs about the nature of all elements comprised in SASL?
What are the teacher’s beliefs about using SASL to communicate with the Deaf?
To which resources does the Saudi Deaf teacher have access when trying to learn SASL?

Research design

The study will use quantitative analysis research design. Generally this research design uses systematic surveys of large scale to generalize data from a sample of a larger population. This research design is usually deductive, detached and objective. The methodology will be concerned with exploring the teachers’ beliefs toward Saudi Sign Language (SASL) in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire instruments that will be used in gathering the necessary data will be adapted from Elshabrawy (2010) to include only the deaf and the hard of hearing students, rather than the students with special needs.

Teachers beliefs toward Saudi Sign Language (SASL) in Saudi Arabia are context based constructs and complex. To conceptualize them needs a research framework that is able to deal with the complexity, in which quantitative research design can offer. The se of several sources of survey data I believed to be appropriate for strengthening the research design, add depth to the findings and data interpretation

Sample

The goal of this study will be to recruit participants from a broader academic setting. Deaf education teachers’ recruitment for this study will occur through multiple channels. The recruitments will take place through the personal contacts o the researchers in the academic setting, email lists available for the national deaf education, targeted contacts, and the larger school settings. This multiple approaches will bring a wide range of representation of the educational settings serving the deaf students.

All invitations to the participants will include a request for the share their invitations with their work colleagues in the deaf education field and also through a snowball effect. There is no available data on the exact number of teachers who teach sign language in Saudi Arabia to the deaf students. This will not allow for the determination of what percent of the population is covered by the study.

The study will use 200 teachers who are in contact with the deaf and hard of hearing students and uses sign language in teaching. The justification for this larger sample and for using most schools in Saudi Arabia that has contact with the deaf and hard of hearing students was to ensure a rich data to facilitate a broadly representative findings of the entire educational scene. According to William (2006), in order to obtain a precise judgment of a population, a researcher should use a sample that is very representative as possible. Given that there are few schools that area meant for the deaf and hard of hearing students, it will not be difficult getting a representative sample. In particular, it will be a vital to survey teachers from both mainstream and special school settings to gather information that is well balanced

Instrument

The main tool that will be used for collecting quantitative data will be adapted from Elshabrawy (2010) attitude scale with an aim of collecting data from a random sample of Saudi teachers. The modified survey instrument will begin with a brief introduction to the questionnaire by detailing instructions on how to answer the questions. The first modification will be done by removing the open-ended questions and using closed questions. This is to get uniform results for easy analysis.

The modified questionnaire contained 32 questions addressing the four research questions. Therefore, the questionnaire questions were grouped in accordance with the four categories of the research questions. However, before the 32 questions, the questionnaire will have the first part of the demographic survey of five questions. Majorly, demographic information will major on the gender of the participant, the number of years he/she has taught deaf students, age group, whether they have participated in any special training or workshop for Saudi sign language, and finally whether they agree or disagree with the statement that “The native language of the Deaf in Saudi Arabia is Saudi Sign Language?”

On the second section of 32 questions, the questionnaire categories the questions based on the four research questions in a bid to determine the Teachers beliefs toward Saudi Sign Language (SASL) in Saudi Arabia. The first category will contain questions related to the teachers’ beliefs about Deaf students’ acquisition/learning of SASL. The second category will have questions related to the teacher’s beliefs about the nature of all elements comprised in SASL. The third category will contain questions related to the teacher’s beliefs about using SASL to communicate with the Deaf. Lastly, the fourth category will have questions related to resources the Saudi Deaf teacher have access to when trying to learn SASL. The questionnaire that will be used in the study is in the Appendix A.

The questionnaire will be administered to the participants to collect quantitative data from the teachers at their schools, either mainstream or special schools. The questionnaire will be an important tool in drawing broad picture in gathering participants’ general background information. An analysis will then be done immediately to establish the bid picture regarding the questionnaires each component and to establish the included factors background information.

According to Breach (2009), the questionnaire survey is a simple way of obtaining data from large participant group who cannot be an interview in a short period of time. The questionnaire instrument that will be adopted will aim to sample educators who are in direct contact with the deaf and hard of hearing students in all schooling level, secondary, intermediate, and primary, and also in special and mainstream schools that serve the deaf and the hard of hearing students.

A pilot study will be done with a small group of teachers in order to check the reliability, validity and clarity of the questionnaire scale.

Data collection procedures

It will be important for the researcher to distribute the questionnaires himself so as to get to know the participants who will be in the study directly in all the schools, and also to establish personal relationships, to explain the enquiry purpose and to elicit their thought about the study. Before beginning the data collection process, the researcher will obtain a supporting letter from the school of education at ABCD University confirming his status as a graduate student and his study’s academic nature. Questionnaire copies will then be handed in person to the head teachers of all the schools with main mainstream program and special schools. Moreover, guidelines will be given to each teacher separately on a sheet of paper to ensure that the questionnaires details are clear. The permission letter from the Local Education Authority will also be given to guarantee confidentiality and anonymity to the schools and the participants (Appendix B).

The procedures that will be followed at each and every data collection stage will be explained. Moreover, the participants will be told that they have the right of withdrawing from the research at any time or point. Moreover, the participants will be invited to ask any question for clarification if they needed. Each questionnaire copy will have an envelope so that the filled copies cannot be interfered or compromised by a third party. The researchers will also explain to the schools that the process of filling the questionnaires will not take more than 10-15 minutes. The personal experience of the researcher in teaching Deaf and hard of hearing students for many years suggested that filling long questionnaires will be difficult while having other commitments and tight work schedules. This suggests that a short survey has a higher likelihood of being completed (Breach, 2009).

The participants will also be assured that the study will be an academic exercise whose outcomes will be intended to benefit their students and also the deaf and hard of hearing alike. The questionnaires completed will be collected in ten days after their distribution. After one week, the researcher will make phone calls to check the questionnaires completion, and then will visit each and every school to collect the completed questionnaires

References

Abu, S. M. (August 02, 2013). Effects of inclusion on language development in hearing-impaired students in Jeddah Schools: Perspectives of teachers and parents. Life Science Journal, 10, 2, 2374-2383.

Alshahrani, M. M., Norwich, B., & University of Exeter,. (2014). Saudi educators’ attitudes towards deaf and hard of hearing inclusive education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Assaleh, K., Shanableh, T., Fanaswala, M., Bajaj, H., & Amin, F. (May 27, 2008). Vision-based system for continuous Arabic Sign Language recognition in user dependent mode. 1-5.

Breach, M. (2009). Dissertation writing for engineers and scientists. Harlow: Pearson Education.

British Educational Research Association [BERA] (2011, September). Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research. London.

Elshabrawy, E. (2010). The Inclusion of Children with Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools in Egypt. (PhD Thesis). Exeter: Exeter University’s Library.

Garberoglio, C. L., Gobble, M. E., & Cawthon, S. W. (January 01, 2012). A national perspective on teachers’ efficacy beliefs in deaf education. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 17, 3, 367-83.

Humphries, T., & Allen, B. M. (March 08, 2009). Reorganizing Teacher Preparation in Deaf Education. Sign Language Studies, 8, 2, 160-180.

Ladd, G., Munson, J., and Miller, J. (1984). Social integration of deaf adolescents in secondary level mainstream programmes. Exceptional Children, 50, 420-429.

Monaham, R., Miller, R, & Cronic, D. (1997).Rural teachers’, administrators’, and counselors’ attitudes toward inclusion. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/

Morris, C., & Schneider, E. (December 07, 2012). On Selected Morphemes in Saudi Arabian Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 13, 1, 103-121.

Parmer, R. S., & Cawley, J. F. (1993) Analysis of science textbook recommendations provided for students with disabilities. Exceptional Children, 59, 518–531.

Stephen, A., & Mathur, G. (December 07, 2012). Bringing the Field into the Classroom: A Field Methods Course on Saudi Arabian Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 13, 1, 37-55.

Ting, C., & Gilmore, L. (December 01, 2012). Attitudes of Preservice Teachers towards Teaching Deaf and ESL Students. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37, 12.)

Tomita, N., & Kozak, V. (December 07, 2012). On Selected Phonological Patterns in Saudi Arabian Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 13, 1, 56-78.

Watson, L. (2009). Deaf children and communication approaches. In Newton, V. (Ed) Paediatric Audiological Medicine. Chichester: Wiley

Williams, K., Schick, B., and Kupermintz H. (2006). Look who’s being behind: Educational interpreters and access to education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Journal deaf studies and deaf education, 11(1), 3-20. 3-20.

Young, L., Palmer, J. L., & Reynolds, W. (December 07, 2012). Selected Lexical Patterns in Saudi Arabian Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 13, 1, 79-102.

Zahir, M. (1990). Some education problems at Al-Amal School for the Deaf and Hard-ofhearing.Students at the first stage of the basic education. Paper presented at the Third Annual Conference of the Egyptian Child: Upbringing and Care, Childhood Center at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

Appendix

Appendix A

Demographic Survey

This survey was developed to reveal teachers’ beliefs toward Saudi Sign Language in Saudi Arabia. Please take a few minutes to complete the following survey.

This questionnaire is asking for your opinions about deaf teachers who teach deaf students only. It is not asking about teachers who teach hard of hearing students.

Demographic Survey

Please mark your gender: A)Male B)Female (Nominal level )
How many years have you been teaching deaf students? ………. ( Ratio Level)
Please indicate your age group: 25-35 36-45 46-55 56+ (Age; Ordinal Level)
Have you participated in workshops or special training for Saudi sign Language?
Yes B) No (Nominal level )
How would you respond to the following statement: The native language of the Deaf in Saudi Arabia is Saudi Sign Language?

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree (Interval Levl)

What are the teacher’s beliefs about Deaf students’ acquisition/learning of SASL?