Interactions between a deaf child for whom English is an additional language and his specialist teacher in the first year at school: Combining words and gestures

Abstract

This paper provides a description of the interactions between a nursery‐aged prelingually deaf child and his specialist teacher recorded at four consecutive time points during the first year at school. The child comes from a hearing, Somali‐speaking family where English is an additional language (EAL). Using Conversation Analysis procedures, findings show how, with the teacher's support, the deaf child accomplishes ‘multi‐element’ turns (that is, turns in which semantic referents are combined using words and gestures—‘elements’) within and across time points. Gestures remain an essential feature of the child's communication at all times. The teacher's prior and next turns create and support language learning opportunities for the child, and this support is continually adjusted in response to the child's turns. It is suggested that these sequences of talk are an important mechanism driving the child's learning of spoken English.

• Deaf child:teacher interaction
• spoken language in the deaf
• gesture
• language learning opportunities

Notes

1. The words ‘deaf’ and ‘deafness’ are used in this paper to indicate permanent, prelingual sensori‐neural hearing impairments of sufficient severity for the deaf child to require special educational provision. This use of the term ‘deaf’ is not to be confused with the term ‘Deaf’ which is currently used in the UK when referring to the Deaf community and culture whose communication modality is sign, and for whom British Sign Language (BSL) is their first and home language.

2. The Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception years) of the National Curriculum addresses the needs of children aged 3–5 years. See http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/foundation_stage/

3. Fortnum et al. (2001) indicated that the prevalence of confirmed permanent childhood hearing impairment in the UK (>40 dBHL in the better ear) is 1.65 per 1000 live births, rising to 2.05 per 1000 among children aged 9 years and older. Estimates indicate that a large number (∼20% in London) of these come from minority ethnic families (Naeem and Newton, 1996; Mytton and Mackenzie, 2005), most of whom do not have English as their first language. In 90% of these latter cases, the families are hearing, and have little or no experience of deafness (NDCS, 2005). According to the latest available BATOD Survey data (BATOD, 2003;, 13% of deaf children in England were recorded as coming from an ethnic group other than White; 9% had a language other than English at home, and there were 60 different home languages recorded.

4. Post‐diagnosis intervention begins with home visits by the local peripatetic teacher of the deaf and/or a specialist speech and language therapist as part of the preschool service provision and continues when the child starts attending nursery and then enters school.

5. Audiological results at age 3;5 show that unaided pure tone average (over. 5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz) was 59 dBHL in his left ear, and 70 dBHL in his right ear. This degree of hearing loss is typical of the largest group of deaf children in the UK (BATOD, 2003). His aided hearing level is given as 23 dBA, indicating that he is technically likely to receive considerable benefit from amplification.

6. Ecological validity here means the degree to which the behaviours observed and recorded reflect the behaviours that actually occur in natural settings.