MLS of Tamil Children with Hearing and Hearing Impairment

Abstract

Language is the only source for equipping our knowledge. For children with hearing impairment, representing ideas is through gestures and written language.  So, prime aim of our education is developing verbal communication, sign language and written language skills for children with hearing impairment.  To date, there has been little research on the development of language skills by Tamil children with hearing impairment, although many fail to pass the public examinations at the end of their school education. For the intellectual capacity of written language the person has to be proficient in vocabulary and grammar comprises morphology and syntax. The Mean Length of Sentence (MLS) is the one which represent the proficiency of written language in any human. The present study focuses on the MLS in Tamil language that counts all morphemes such as prefix, root words, and suffixes. In this study, the written language was investigated by analyzing 50 children's (with hearing and non-hearing) written responses through Picture Test and creative story writing for story charts. The data were analyzed MLS was calculated for both group. The data showed clearly that children with hearing impairment were delayed in language relative to their hearing peers for information and grammar in written Tamil.