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7ROLE-PLAYING GAME AS A MEANS OF DEVELOPING COHERENT SPEECH IN JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT
The urgency of the problem under study is due to the insufficient development of the means of improving coherent speech in junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments in the process of playing activity. The article is aimed at studying the characteristics of coherent speech formation in children with hearing impairments. The leading methods for studying this problem were "Methods for the development of preschool age children speech" by Ushakova O. S. and Strunina E.M. After analysis of the experiment results, it was concluded that in the course of the work carried out, children of primary school age improved the level of object description, as well as the level of narrative statements on the picture plot. The article materials may be useful for teachers and educators to work with children suffering from hearing impairments, as well as for students of pedagogical departments and faculties of colleges and Universities in their preparation for the classes and during the pedagogical practice.
Keywords
children with hearing impairment, speech, communication, subject-role-playing game, speech development, speech formation, hearing impairment, coherent speech
AUTHORS
Maria D. Makartseva
Teacher, Specialized (correctional) Boarding School № 65, Moscow. Russia. 19/1, Saratovskaya street, Moscow, 109518, Russia. E-mail: [email protected]
1. Introduction
Hearing impairment, like sensory impairment, affects all aspects of a person's mental development and may cause various forms of deprivation.
One of the most important problems of a person with hearing impairment is his interaction with other people. Representatives of various sciences have always paid attention to the process of speech development in a child. Scientists, teachers, psychologists studied the driving forces of speech development, identified the reasons for the delay or activation of this process. The information that is obtained during the study of this problem may be used to organize pedagogical influence in order to accelerate the process of developing verbal coherent dialogical speech in children with hearing impairment at a special school.
There are three areas of speech development in primary classes: word (lexical level), phrase and sentence (syntactic level) and coherent speech (text level) (Rechitskaya, 1988). The development of these areas occurs in parallel, each level depends on the previous one. Thus, the assimilation of the vocabulary provides material for constructing sentences, and the results of both areas are used in the preparation of connected stories.
Such pedagogical device as a role-playing game is often used in work to optimize the development of children speech (Romaeva, 2011). However, the work on the development of coherent speech in children with hearing impairments has some peculiarities (Rechitskaya, 1994). Recognizing the value of mobile and didactic games and their great
importance for the development of a child, we still focused on role-playing games (Elkonin, 1978). This is because deaf children can easily take part in mobile and didactic games. The role-playing game is used mostly in preschool and primary school age. The use of a role-playing game was analyzed as a method for developing speech in children with hearing impairments in theoretical literature earlier (Vygodskaya, 1975; Vygodskaya, 1964). However, taking into account the tendencies to updating the paradigm, we suppose the modernization of the methodology in modern pedagogy as well.
The work on the development of the speech of junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments is considered as the most difficult task of primary school. Due to the integration processes taking place in society, it is extremely relevant. Thus, the problem of the development of speech in children with impaired hearing during a role-playing game is a pressing issue for research in modern deaf-and-dumb pedagogy.
The works of such domestic scientists as G. L. Vygotskaya, A. M. Goldberg, R.M. Boskis (Boskis, 1981), S.A. Zykov (Zykov, 1977), L.M. Bykova (Bykova, 1980), Zh.I. Schiff, as well as foreign specialists - V. Weiss, K. Leimiz, and O. Perie are the theoretical basis of our research. Scholars R.M. Boskis, L.G. Zikeev (Zikeev, 2000), T.S. Zykova, K.G. Korovin, L.P. Nazarova et al. were engaged in the study of deaf students' coherent speech development peculiarities. Scientific research works by I.M.Gilevich, T.M.Vlasova, A.G. Zikeev, K.G. Korovin, and L.I. Tigranova emphasize the role of activating speech activity for the harmonious psychophysical and personal development of preschoolers with impaired hearing, their successful further schooling and socialization in society. The works by L.V. Andreeva, T.G. Bogdanova, O.A. Krasilnikova, H.M. Nazarova, M.I. Nikitina, and F.F. Rau define the importance of improving the efficiency of training and education process to maximize the use of speech environment opportunities. Here, they take into account the general patterns and features of speech perception, imitative ability and the desire for active and productive action (R.M. Boskis, L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Zykov, B.D. Korsunskaya. E.I. Leonhard and others).
The object of the research is the speech of junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments.
The subject of the research is the development of a coherent speech of junior students with hearing impairments in the process of gaming activity.
Objectives of the study:
1. Study of role-playing game method effectiveness in the development of coherent speech;
2. Conducting the ascertaining stage of the experiment to identify the level of coherent speech development in children;
3. Analysis of the obtained data;
4. Development and conduct of classes to improve the level of coherent speech;
5. Re-examination of children to identify changes in the level of coherent speech development.
Hypothesis: role-playing game is an effective method in the development of coherent speech in junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments.
Base of research: State public educational institution of the city of Moscow "Special (correctional) boarding school № 65".
The novelty of the work lies in the generalization of pedagogical experience on the development of coherent speech in junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments, as well as in the presentation of a number of special methods and techniques for working with such children.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Selection
In order to understand how effective role-playing games are for speech development, a study of speech development of 4th grade children was organized. All participants in the experiment were observed in individual and group classes.
The study was conducted at special (correctional) boarding school № 65 in Moscow in three stages.
• The first stage is an ascertaining experiment;
• The second stage is a formative experiment;
• The third stage - identifying the dynamics of speech development in children of primary school age (control experiment).
The study involved 17 children of primary school age with various hearing impairments, congenital or acquired at an early age.
2.2. Conducting research
Conducting the ascertaining experiment.
The experiment was conducted with adherence to the principles:
• The principle of complexity;
• Age principle;
• The principle of an individual approach;
• The principle of taking into consideration personal characteristics.
The study involved 17 people. Determining the level of coherent speech development in junior schoolchildren with hearing impairment was carried out based on a series of tasks for speech research from "Methods of speech development in preschool children" manual for educators of preschool educational institutions by Ushakova O. S, Strunina E.M. The tasks were adapted and used in experimental part of the work.
According to this method, the child is supposed to perform 3 tasks:
1. Retelling of the literary text.
2. Compilation of descriptive stories.
3. Composing a story on a series of pictures.
4. The development of coherent speech is assessed, in addition to the above-mentioned general indicators, by special criteria that characterize the basic qualities of a coherent utterance (description, narration on a series of pictures or on a chosen topic). Indicators:
1. Content (in the narration - the ability to come up with an interesting plot, to deploy it in a logical sequence; in the description - reporting on micro topics, signs and actions).
2. Composition of the utterance: the presence of three structural parts, such as beginning, middle, end.
3. Grammatical correctness.
4. Ways of linking sentences.
5. A variety of lexical means.
6. Verbal presentation of the utterance.
Three levels of coherent speech development were identified among the participants of the experiment based on the data of the analysis of connected utterances.
54 - 49 (points) - high level
48 - 27 (points) - intermediate level
18 - 26 (points) - low level
I High level. We can trace the structural organization of the text. There is a compositional completeness in the stories, parts of the utterance are connected. Thoughts are precisely formulated and expressed. Grammatically, the utterances are correct. Informative description is at a high level. Different language means are used during speaking. There is a balance of structural parts in the story. Speech is smooth, the number of pauses is no more than two. All the facts that are shown in the picture are fully covered. Diverse links are revealed between the objects and the actors. The observed facts are presented coherently and in the correct sequence. There are many complex sentences in the stories.
II Intermediate level. Low informative. The predominance of nouns and adjectives in speech. Often use of the formal connection, that is, conjunctions. The structure and description sequence is broken. Mostly, simple sentences are used. There are many pauses in speech. The story is made up with the help of an adult. Enumeration of the subject attributes.
III Low level. The content of the statements is poor. The relations between objects, phenomena, actors shown in the picture are not revealed. The story consists of separate sentences without end and beginning. A large number of pauses.
Conducting a control experiment. At the control stage, we carried out recurring diagnostics using the same techniques that were used at the ascertaining stage of the experiment in order to verify the effectiveness of role-playing games and identify the dynamics of speech development.
2.3. Analysis and processing of research results
The results of the ascertaining experiment.
After diagnostics, the results were processed. When children performed the tasks, their utterances were recorded in the minutes. Then the survey data were presented in the tables. After processing the obtained data in accordance with the proposed criteria, we obtained the results, which are shown in Tables 1 and 2. The results were systematized and analyzed, and based on the results, we got three levels of tasks performance success: high, intermediate and low. Each level indicates the degree of development of the skill diagnosed in the task. After all three tasks were performed, the scores for all the criteria and the scores for the special additional criteria were summed up to get a total grade for the entire series. Three levels were also identified on the basis of this assessment, indicating the state of coherent speech in children under test.
Completing the task caused difficulties for most of the participants, with the exception of children with good hearing residues. Therefore, we obtained a rather low result of coherent speech development among schoolchildren.
In addition, in all three tasks, the children's speech was evaluated by special criteria that characterize the basic qualities of a coherent utterance. Additional points were added for each criterion, and they were added to the general table of results.
Thus, all the data obtained by the ascertaining experiment were listed in Table 1.
TABLE 1 - THE LEVEL OF COHERENT SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF ASCERTAINING DIAGNOSIS
Coherent speech development level Number of children
High level (34-45p) 2
Intermediate level (21 -33p) 8
Low level (9-20p) 7
Thus, in the course of the study, it was noted that the coherent speech of most children is at an intermediate and low level of development. Moreover, these groups are almost the same quantitatively. Based on this data, we conclude that the coherent speech of junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments is not adequately developed. There is an incorrect construction of simple and complex sentences, frequent replacements of nouns with pronouns in the speech of children. The monologues of most children suffer from a lack of a clear structure for constructing a coherent utterance. All this testifies to the need for training in order to develop special skills for the construction of coherent monologue statements and the development of coherent speech.
2.4 The results of the control experiment
At the third stage, we carried out recurring diagnostics in order to verify the effectiveness of role-playing games and to identify the dynamics of speech development.
Taking into account the points obtained from the results of the evaluation according to special criteria that characterize the main qualities of a coherent utterance, and the results of completing all 3 tasks, we compiled general tables for all tasks in 2 stages. The data in the tables allowed us to make a diagram.
TABLE 2 - COMPARING THE LEVEL OF COHERENT SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT BY THE RESULTS OF ASCERTAINING AND CONTROL DIAGNOSTICS
Level of coherent speech development at the 1 -st stage. Number of children
High level (34-45p.) 2
Intermediate level (21 -33p.) 8
Low level (9-20p.) 7
Level of coherent speech development at the 3-d stage. Number of children
High level (34-45p.) 5
Intermediate level (21 -33p.) 8
Low level (9-20p.) 4
COMPARING THE LEVEL OF COHERENT SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT BY THE RESULTS OF ASCERTAINING AND CONTROL DIAGNOSTICS
Ji
HIGH LEVEL TERMED I ATE LEVEL LOW LEVEL
■ Ascertaining diagnostics ■ Control diagnostics
FIGURE 1 - COMPARING THE LEVEL OF COHERENT SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT BY THE RESULTS OF ASCERTAINING AND CONTROL DIAGNOSTICS
Children who were at a high level of speech development showed the same results at the end of the formative experiment. Three children with a low level improved their results and passed to an intermediate level of speech development. Four children remained at a low level of speech development. During the games they were inactive, and did not show much interest in the game. In further work, it is necessary to develop the gaming activities of these children.
2.5. Discussion of the research results
The results of primary school age children, obtained after the examination on the selected criteria, indicate positive changes in the development of coherent speech. As a result of the training, schoolchildren were able to reveal the content of the text much better, many of them independently, and some with the help of a tutor. An analysis of the texts compiled by the children showed that practically all of them highlighted in the text initial and final sentences that organized the text. Initial sentences in narrative texts fix the main characters or story events. The final sentences are a summary related to the entire text. After the work done, children give an assessment of heroes' actions, convey their feelings more often in the course of the story. However, at the same time, six children did not acquire the skills that ensure the overall structural form of the text. The texts of these children contain only two parts - the first and the second, and accordingly they are incomplete. The volume of utterances is presented in different ways when they perform the tasks. So, when children retell literary works, we usually find on average up to 15 sentences in the text. In making up stories of pictures and subjects, the children's texts consisted of 5-6 sentences at the beginning of the study, and of 8-13 sentences by the end of it. On the average, a story consists of 11 sentences. Schoolchildren build sentences of 4-7 words mostly; on the average, one sentence consists of 5 words. Analysis of the grammatical structure shows that children are beginning to use a variety of sentences constructions. If they used one-word, incomplete sentences at the beginning of training, then the number of such sentences decreased by the end of the year, and the number of two-part sentences increased. Complete, extended sentences appear in the speech of children. The number of simple sentences in the text has decreased and the number of complex and direct speech sentences has doubled. The experiment participants begin to use various types of links more often. At the beginning of the experiment, the children used one, two types of links in the stories (they were chain pronominal or formally coordinative links mostly); they use two, three types of links by the end of it. One can still note the presence of a formal link in the utterances, but, at the same time, the chain pronominal, lexical repetition, and "but", "and" conjunctions are used more often. The utterances of schoolchildren have become more solid. They are not so often interrupted by pauses. More often, a pause is followed by a more precise, bright word, i.e. children try to set the text forth in consecutive order, select words and phrases that are more suitable for the content and scheme of the text. The number of children who have independently coped with the task has increased, and the amount of assistance required to complete the task has decreased.
The proposed set of tasks pays special attention to the development of coherent speech. The proposed types of tasks may be used in extracurricular time, in various educational events. As the experiment showed, the worked out correctional and developmental program has a positive effect on the development of coherent speech of deaf schoolchildren.
3. Discussions
The analysis of the theoretical propositions, as well as the conclusions obtained at the ascertaining stage of the research, allowed us to develop a pedagogical technology for the development of coherent speech in junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments by means of a role-playing game. In the development of this technology, we relied on the assumption that the work in this area should not be limited only to giving certain knowledge to children (Vygodskaya, 1964). It seemed important to develop among deaf and children with impaired hearing the ability to make stories, including various means of expressiveness, as well as the ability to express their thoughts logically, consistently, reason, and draw conclusions in their own speech activity. Such an approach to the problem made it possible to use the role-playing game in the most efficient way, as one of the methods of teaching deaf schoolchildren to tell stories, to develop the child not only verbally, but also intellectually. The complex playing and developmental nature of the proposed games-classes may be one of the ways to optimize the development of coherent speech among junior students with hearing impairments.
The work on the development of coherent speech should be carried out systematically and be educational in nature. Teaching deaf schoolchildren of coherent speech at all stages should be subordinated to the main goal: to develop their independent, creative, logical thinking and, on this basis, precise and expressive coherent oral speech. To achieve this ultimate and complex goal, the teacher must think over the entire system of work for the development of coherent speech thoroughly in good time; the system should include all types of work appropriate for this age children and recommended by the program.
4. Conclusion
The conducted work allowed us to draw the following conclusions:
The ability to play did not arise in children spontaneously, but under the influence of learning. During correctional work, schoolchildren master the basic vocabulary, grammatical means of speech, their phonetic abilities are also improved - intonation and stress, which are particularly difficult for children who are unable to perceive the voiced speech adequately, and coherent speech is also developed.
Analyzing the results of the control experiment, we concluded that children of primary school age improved their level of objects' description as well as the level of narrative utterances describing pictures in the course of the conducted work. The coherent speech of children was enriched by the variety of used language means, became better in structure and logic.
Thus, the work showed that children of primary school age are able to create a narrative type of utterance in the course of special training based on the use of toys, a series of plot pictures in situations of their interaction with each other and a teacher. At the same time, children use various types of links in their texts. The syntactic structure of preschool children speech is improved; they often include various syntactic constructions. Moreover, it occurs precisely when the teacher turns for help to children, offers to tell for peers, attracts them to the selection of better words, utterances. Their speech becomes coherent, interesting for listeners. The children try to select exact words and phrases intelligible to those around them, expressing their intention that corresponds to the content of the text. The game form of training made it attractive for children and more productive.
The data of our study showed that the process of speech development, speech activity of the child requires targeted pedagogical guidance, which establishes effective ways to manage this process. By guidance we mean a process in which such methods and techniques
are used that would contribute to the better development of the speech abilities of primary school age children with hearing impairments by means of a role-playing game.
As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that the level of children speech development increased the quality efficiency. Children have become more focused, more attentive, the volume of active and passive vocabulary has grown, children have become more active, and role-playing dialogue has become more expressive and meaningful.
From the results of the work done, it can be concluded that there is a significant improvement in the level of speech development of children with the development of gaming activity. The volume of the active vocabulary of children has also grown with the development of game activity.
Favorable conditions were created during the game for the communication of children with hearing impairments, for the formation of generalizing and regulating mechanisms of the word function. At the beginning, the speech of children was at the most elementary level - the designation by the word of objects, their qualities, and actions (Geilman, 1978). After the correctional development work had been carried out, most of the schoolchildren learned to select the subject-logical content for description, acquired the ability to build a composition, link the parts into a single text, selectively use language means. Therefore, we can say that role-playing games contributed to the development of the speech of children with hearing impairments. The game itself makes children to master more and more complex forms of speech. Purposeful work on the development of coherent monologue utterances of descriptive type in children with hearing impairment during specially organized classes and in the course of every day gaming activity had a great influence on the development of descriptive and narrative speech, and contributed to the transition of children to a higher level of coherent speech. Therefore, we can say that the hypothesis of our study, according to which the role-playing game is an effective method of coherent speech development in junior schoolchildren with hearing impairments, was confirmed.
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