LINGUISTICS FOR DEAFNESS AND HEARING IMPAIRMENTS

The course is included among the main learning activities of the Master Degree in Language Sciences which allow the student the acquire the methodological tools provided by the most recent linguistic theories useful to analyse and describe the linguistic difficulties found in populations with hearing loss.
The main objective of this course is develop the ability to analyse the linguistic competence of different populations of hearing impaired people (orally trained cochlear-implanted children, individuals using conventional hearing aids, and adolescent and adult LIS signers) in Italian and across different languages, by investigating the use of different linguistic and syntactic properties following recent generative theories.

1. Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the difficulties that hearing-impaired individuals experience in oral language acquisition.
The student knows the clinical and personal variables that may influence oral language acquisition in hearing-impaired individuals.
The student knows and understands the linguistic theories that account for some linguistic phenomena observed in typical language acquisition and language acquisition in hearing-impaired individuals.
The student understands how linguistic theories may help enhance the level of linguistic competence in hearing-impaired individuals.
The student is introduced to various standardised and non-standardised linguistic tools used for assessing linguistic competence in both typical and atypical language acquisition, particularly in cases of deafness.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding
The student knows how to use linguistic terminology and formal linguistics analysis tools to describe the language difficulties of hearing-impaired individuals.
The student is able to apply the knowledge acquired during the course to create accessible texts for deaf individuals.

3. Making judgements
The student can formulate and argue hypotheses based on the knowledge acquired during the course.
The student can produce appropriate examples to support or refute different hypotheses in the field of language acquisition by hearing-impaired people.

4. Communication:
The student can present, in written form, the hypotheses and the linguistic phenomena discussed during the course using the correct linguistic terminology.
The student can interact with peers and the professor critically and respectfully.

5. Learning skills
The student can look for and read both the references mentioned in the course program and new references necessary to study some phenomena concerning the linguistic competence of hearing impaired individuals.

Knowledge of general linguistics and syntactic theory. Students with no background in generative grammar are recommended to read the following textbooks:
C. Donati, La sintassi. Regole e Strutture, Il Mulino, 2008;
A. Cardinaletti, Esercizi di sintassi, Carocci, 2009;

This course offers an overview of the linguistic difficulties associated to hearing impairment and aims at analysing in detail the linguistic competence of different populations of hearing-impaired individuals (cochlear-implanted children, individuals using conventional hearing aids, adolescent and adult LIS signers). We will then focus on the acquisition and the use different morphosyntactic and syntactic properties in the vocal language of deaf people.In particular, the comprehension and production of complex syntactic structures in Italian and other languages will be explored in depth. Furthermore, strategies for intervening and improving the linguistic competence of deaf individuals will be presented, as well as tools for making a message accessible to a deaf person.

Bertone C., Volpato F. (2009). Oral language and sign language: possible approaches for deaf people’s language development. Cadernos de Saúde, 2. 51-62.

Cardinaletti A. (2022). Accessibilità ai contenuti: strategie di comunicazione accessibile e di semplificazione linguistica in ambito culturale, in Franca Orletti (a cura di), Comunicare il patrimonio culturale. Accessibilità comunicativa, tecnologie e sostenibilità, Milano, FrancoAngeli, pp. 137-150

Caselli, M. C., Maragna, S, Pagliari Rampelli, L, Volterra, V. (2006). Linguaggio e Sordità. Firenze: La Nuova Italia (chapters: 3-4).

D’Ortenzio S., Montino S., Martini A., Trevisi P., Volpato F. (2020), A syntactically based treatment of relative clauses: Three case studies of Italian children with cochlear implants, in Vicenç Torrens (Ed.), Typical and impaired processing in Morphosyntax. Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Friedmann, N., Szterman, R. (2006). Syntactic movement in orally-trained children with hearing impairment. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 11: 56-75.

Friedmann, N., Szterman, R. (2011). The Comprehension and Production of Wh-Questions in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 16: 212-235.

Friedmann, N., & Haddad-Hanna, M. (2014). The comprehension of sentences derived by syntactic movement in Palestinian Arabic-speaking children with hearing impairment. Applied psycholinguistics,35, 473-513.

Ruigendijk E., Friedmann N. (2017). A Deficit in Movement-Derived Sentences in German-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children. Frontiers in psychology, 8

Volpato, F. (2019). Relative clauses, phi features, and memory skills. Edizioni Ca' Foscari (https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-393-9/ )

Volpato F. (Ed.). Valutazione linguistica in italiano e nella LIS e strategie di intervento. Edizioni Ca' Foscari (scaricabile dal sito di Edizioni Ca’ Foscari: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-737-1/ )

Volpato, F. (2012). The comprehension of relative clauses by hearing and hearing-impaired, cochlear-implanted children: the role of marked number features. In S. Ferré, P. Prévost, L. Tuller, and R. Zebib (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the Romance Turn IV Workshop on the Acquisition of Romance Languages.

Volpato, F., Vernice, M. (2014). The production of relative clauses by Italian cochlear-implanted and hearing children. Lingua 139, 39-67.

Other materials may be provided during classes.

The exam consists in a written exam lasting lasting 2 hours and 30 minutes. It consists in answering 10 open questions on the topics and linguistic issues discussed during the course using the correct linguistic terms (the factors that may influence the linguistic competence of individuals with hearing impairment; the problematic structures, pointing out how linguistic theories may account for the linguistic phenomena observed in individuals with hearing impairment; how the linguistic theory may enhance the linguistic competence of deaf individuals).
In addition, students are presented with a short text. They have to identify the linguistic aspects that are problematic for hearing-impaired people and propose a modified version of the text to make it accessible to this population.

written

The exam aims to assess the knowledge of the factors characterising deafness, the ability to analyse the linguistic structures produced and comprehended by deaf individuals, the knowledge of the characteristics of a linguistic intervention, the ability to adapt a text to the needs of a deaf person, and the use of appropriate terminology.
The grading scale is based on the following criteria:
• Knowledge of the topics covered in lectures and in the texts and materials listed in the relevant section of the program (up to 10 points)
• Ability to apply the analytical tools introduced in class to adapt written texts to the linguistic/communicative needs of hearing-impaired individuals (up to 10 points)
• Communication skills and use of appropriate terminology (up to 10 points)
Honours will be awarded for excellent knowledge of the syllabus content, strong analytical and judgment skills, and outstanding communicative abilities.

Face-to-face lessons and materials available in the Moodle platform

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development