Sign Language Acquisition among Preschool Children who are Deaf in Ghana: A Process of Language Reorientation within the School Ecology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore how the school setting facilitates sign language acquisition during the early years of children who are deaf in order to theorise the process of sign language development among children who are deaf in Ghana. In line with the purpose, the constructivist grounded theory design was adopted to gather qualitative data using observations and interviews. Both purposive and theoretical sampling procedures were employed to select parents, teachers and head teachers from two homes and six schools for the deaf respectively across Ghana for the study. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyse data during the initial, focused and theoretical coding procedures. The core categories that emerged from the data were language disorientation, language facilitation, language adjustment and language replacement leading to a substantive theory termed as “theory of language reorientation”. The theory explains that children who are deaf who come from hearing families and therefore do not acquire sign language from home become language disorientated as they grapple with education at school. Subsequently, teachers, peers and deaf role-models within the school environment facilitate deaf pupils’ sign language acquisition through classroom teaching and learning activities, school deaf culture and peer interactions. The study concluded that the schools for the deaf serve as places of last resort to sign language development of children who are deaf. It is therefore recommended that Ghana Education Service in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare should embark upon public campaign to give parents education on the need to, as a matter of expedience, send their children who are deaf to the schools for the deaf as early as possible.