Pre-service special educators’ levels of readiness to learn sign language

Omar A. Alawajee 1 *
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1 Department of Special Education, College of Science and Arts, Qassim University, Ar Rass, SAUDI ARABIA
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article No: e202311. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/12922
OPEN ACCESS   862 Views   850 Downloads   Published online: 31 Jan 2023
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ABSTRACT

Sign language is critical to deaf individuals’ education and mental health, as it provides them adequate opportunities to communicate well in school and express themselves and their feelings to others. Pre-service special educators should be able to use sign language effectively with their future deaf students. This study aimed to determine whether pre-service teachers are ready to learn sign language. A questionnaire comprising four readiness domains–motivation to learn sign language and social, personal, and kinetic aspects–was used in this study. Participants were 72 female pre-service teachers enrolled in a special education bachelor’s program at a university in Saudi Arabia. No statistically significant differences were observed in participants’ readiness to learn sign language based on their academic paths or academic grade point averages. This result indicates that the pre-service special education teachers possessed the necessary social, personal, and kinetic aspects of readiness to learn sign language and were highly motivated to learn sign language. The findings help advance the current literature on pre-service preparation programs. Recommendations for future practice are discussed.
Keywords: sign language, teacher preparation programs, hearing loss, competence, communication, learning readiness

CITATION

Alawajee, O. A. (2023). Pre-service special educators’ levels of readiness to learn sign language. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 13(2), e202311. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/12922

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