the effects of teaching english vocabulary through communicative games and sign language to hearing-impaired children on their social anxiety levels

The population of hearing-impaired children is increasing worldwide. these children should be exposed to learning english with equal chances. this study specifically aimed at investigating the effect of teaching english vocabulary to hearing-impaired children via playing communicative games, such as puzzles, videogames, dough, clay, along with using sign language. the participants were 34 male and female hearing-impaired children aged 10 to 17 from kerman province, southeastern iran. the students were randomly divided into two groups to form the experimental group and the control group. to the experimental group, the english concrete vocabulary items were taught via different games together with the sign language. the control group was taught english vocabulary traditionally only through sign language. 80 target vocabulary items in different categories in total were taught during treatment in the study. the experiment was conducted during 10 sessions with vocabulary pretests and posttests. the results of the analyses of the social anxiety scale indicated that teaching english vocabulary via communicative games together with sign language had a positive effect on hearing-impaired children’s social anxiety levels through conducting more successful communications in english using sign language.