Last Lesson at Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University

On June Wednesday, June 22, I held my last class at V. Dahl EUNU.  It was bittersweet, because I would miss working with my students and colleagues in Luhansk, but I was also looking forward to being home again with Amy.

The topic was on the components of language (pragmatics, semantics, and syntax).  We examined each component in detail and discussed the importance of addressing them with deaf and hard of hearing students.  Teachers will often focus on syntax, but will not think to address pragmatics.  I provided specific examples of each area and the unique problems deaf students often have.

I also described a technique for assessing students' expressive language abilities.  When evaluating deaf and hard of hearing students, we can videotape them to obtain a sample of spontaneous language and then carefully analyze their manual and/or verbal utterances to determine current levels of performance.

One of my students asked me if one could establish a specific diagnosis using the assessment technique we were discussing.  I explained that it is not a tool to determine a speech/language disability, but that it is extremely useful in determining students' specific abilities in the area of language.  He remarked that the assessment strategy is useful for teachers, but not for him as a diagnostic clinician.  He tends to look at things from a strictly medical perspective, which is not always appropriate in education.  I told the class that taking and analyzing a spontaneous language sample is absolutely critical for everyone working with deaf and hard of hearing students, because it provides us with a wealth of information regarding which linguistic skills students have internalized, which skills are just emerging and which ones are not yet present.  We can then use this information to develop and implement targeted interventions.  Educators must know what skills students have and do not have, so they can implement effective instruction.

I was very pleased with the outcome of this final lesson.  There was considerable discussion, and the topic was very timely and highly practical.