Pre-service special educators’ levels of readiness to learn sign language

Abstract

Sign language is critical to deaf individuals’ education and mental health, as it provides them adequate opportunities to communicate well in school and express themselves and their feelings to others. Pre-service special educators should be able to use sign language effectively with their future deaf students. This study aimed to determine whether pre-service teachers are ready to learn sign language. A questionnaire comprising four readiness domains–motivation to learn sign language and social, personal, and kinetic aspects–was used in this study. Participants were 72 female pre-service teachers enrolled in a special education bachelor’s program at a university in Saudi Arabia. No statistically significant differences were observed in participants’ readiness to learn sign language based on their academic paths or academic grade point averages. This result indicates that the pre-service special education teachers possessed the necessary social, personal, and kinetic aspects of readiness to learn sign language and were highly motivated to learn sign language. The findings help advance the current literature on pre-service preparation programs. Recommendations for future practice are discussed.