Learning Diversity in the Chinese Classroom: Contexts and Practice for Students with Special Needs

6 - Specific Language Impairment and Hearing Impairment

6 Specific Language Impairment and Hearing Impairment Chris R. DOWSON In this chapter the nature of specific language impairment and hearing impairment in Chinese students is discussed, specifically focusing on: • The nature of specific language impairment and its causes; • Ways of classifying and measuring specific language impairment; • The nature of hearing impairment — its definition, classification and measurement; • Some important issues in deaf education; • Curriculum considerations for hearing impaired students; • General classroom principles for supporting students with specific language; and • Language and communication for students with severe and profound disabilities. Introduction Without effective communication and competency in a language system we cannot operate fully in the world as interactive human beings. Communication and language helps define who we are and how we are viewed by others. It follows that those who have difficulties with communication and language may be marginalized in society and unable to realize their full potential. Very few specific language impairments have their origins solely within the student as internal or organic factors such as neurological disorders. Most difficulties occur because of non-organic or external factors such as poor teaching, lack of motivation and language-scarce environments. 158 Chris R. DOWSON Specific language impairment may be associated with other disabilities such as intellectual disability or difficulties in relating to and communicating with others. There may also be specific problems contributing to the disorder such as difficulty in recalling language, or inability to respond appropriately within the social context. The focus of this chapter is specific language impairment as the primary problem. Other chapters in this book outline the specific language impairment associated with other disabilities. Defining Specific Language Impairment Specific language impairment refers to problems with the four modes of language — listening, speaking reading and writing i.e. receiving or expressing written, verbal, or printed information. It also includes non-verbal communication modes such as body language, in which there may be, for example, a mismatch between body and verbal language resulting in confusion for the language receiver (Knapp & Hall, 1997). Communication problems also occur when it is difficult to extract meaning from written text, or when we fail to express ourselves clearly in spoken or written form. In simple terms, language is a system of symbols used in a shared code with shared meaning and, as a system, it has grammatical rules. Language disorders affect the system we use to communicate with or to understand others. When two people share the same language and yet are not able to communicate, what is probably missing is shared understanding. The altered communication abilities of students with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are one such example (see Chapter 10). These students may express themselves in grammatically correct language, yet the receiver is unable to attach any contextual meaning to their expression. Language is basically made up of three elements: form, content and use (Owens, 2004). Form refers to the grammatical rules, morphology (structure of words), syntax (putting words in the correct order) and unique sounds (the phonology) used in a particular language. Content refers to vocabulary and understanding of the meaning of words, and use (or function) to the ways language is used to obtain information — for example, the purposes it is used for, or the way it is used in social situations (pragmatics). A competent language user needs to be fully able in all three of these elements. A user could, for instance, have weaknesses in an aspect of form, such as grammar, and an aspect of content, such as limited vocabulary, but be able to use language in a variety of ways. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) similarly defines a language disorder as “impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken, written and/ or other symbol systems. This disorder may involve: (1) the form of the language (phonology, morphology, and syntax); (2) the content of language (semantics) and/ Specific Language Impairment and Hearing Impairment 159 or the function of language in communication (pragmatics) in any combination” (Ad hoc Committee on Service Delivery in the Schools, 1993, p. 40). In the literature a distinction is sometimes made between delayed and deviant language. Delayed language means that the user is exhibiting expressive and/or receptive language that is typical of a younger user, such as the use of telegraphic speech (a developmental speech stage in which two-year-olds typically say only the important meaningful words) by a child older than thirty months, or substitution of /k/ by...