Chapter 39: Using Imagery to Teach Independent Pronunciation Skills to Deaf College Students

In order to attain independent pronunciation skills, deaf students must become proficient in the use of a phonetic symbol system. Before 1978, students enrolled in the Pronunciation course at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf were usually able to empty the four or five new symbols they learned in each class session but often had difficulty retaining symbols used in previous sessions. Past research has revealed that deaf students are not likely to develop their own strategies for a memory task but improve markedly in recall accuracy and speed when they are instructed to the use of an effective strategy. Therefore, a specially designed visual mnemonic strategy was introduced into the curriculum with excellent results.