Multimodal Communication and Learners with Hearing Impairment: Teachers' Perspectives and Practice

The purpose of this study was to gain descriptive understanding of the teachers perceptions and application of multimodal communication in the instruction of learners with hearing impairment in inclusive classrooms. In particular it was aimed at finding out how teachers perceive multimodal communication. This included the practice in a classroom milieu where learners with hearing impairment are instructed together with their hearing counterparts. The study followed a qualitative case study design. The reason for choosing this design was to study the phenomena in depth. In order to gain deeper understanding of the phenomenon, three cases were studied using non-participant observation strategy. Observation was used to ascertain the multimodal communication practices of the cases in their respective classrooms. Thus, observation was used as the main method complemented by in-depth interview.