Speaker

Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrollment Classroom Ecology: A Qualitative Analysis of Parent, Teacher, and Child Interviews

Relatively little research focuses on what occurs within a Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrollment (SLCO) classroom, particularly its classroom ecology. Adopting a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews, features were identified that shaped the classroom ecology of the SLCO learning context and how the microsystems (i.e. classroom arrangements, the language of instruction, hearing-deaf teacher collaborative teaching, and hearing-deaf students co-learning, etc.) interact with each other and with the general school policies.

The effects of the principles of organizing SLCO education on teaching and learning and critical components in the SLCO setting are analyzed based on the seven themes emerged from the interview data and then organized into five facets that interact with each other in constituting a classroom ecology, including interpersonal relationships, instruction and classroom management, composition of students, physical environment and resources available, expectations of teachers and administrators (Doyle, 2013; McLean, 2016). These key components of classroom ecology in the SLCO setting allow us to understand better how they impact Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and hearing students’ outcomes and the implications on programming within the general framework of inclusive education, as a variation to existing models of integrating D/HH students into mainstream classrooms.

Biography:
Dr Fay Wong's research focuses on bilingual classroom discourse and Deaf education. Fay received her PhD from the University of Hong Kong and worked for the hearing impaired students for over 15 years. Fay has been lecturer for teacher training related to special educational need students in the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Education University of Hong Kong.