Examination of Hearing-Impaired Collage Students' Writing Studies Based on Balanced Literacy Instruction Approach

Abstract

The linguistic limitations of students with hearing impairment negatively affect their writing skills. Studies demonstrated that writing skills are important for literacy development and that they should be developed in accordance with the needs of students. The general goal of this research is to examine the written expression courses which have been planned for the effective development of the hearing-impaired youngsters' written expression skills. The methodology of the study is action research. Data was collected from seven hearing-impaired students attending the second year of the program in Computer Operator Training at the School for the Handicapped (SfH) located at Anadolu University in the fall and spring semesters of the 2014-2015 academic year. Collecting archival data were video records, writing lesson plans and reflections, examining the students' portfolios and notebooks, and research journal. It was found that prewriting, drafting, revising/editing, and publishing stages of the students' writing process were similar to those described in the literature, but they took place in a cyclical manner. At the end of the research, the students were actively involved in drafting, revision/editing phases and written products reflect the strategies carried out in the process. When the writing processes of the texts were examined, it was observed/determined that the strategies were taught directly and metacognitively and the strategy of modelling was used extensively.