Go Fish English Game: Enhancing Special Needs Pupils with Hearing Disabilities Vocabulary

Abstract

In 2013, The Ministry of Education (MOE) implemented the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for English language learning in Malaysian primary and secondary schools. This framework involves special needs pupils with hearing disabilities -Murid Berkeperluan Pendidikan Khas (MBPK) Pendengaran as it has been standardized to be implemented to all pupils without discrimination. Innovation in language material is important for hearing-impaired pupils because they require more help in being a proficient language user compared to normal pupils. Therefore, this study seeks to help hearingimpaired pupils through an innovative card game known as 'Go Fish English game' by incorporating four language skills which are seeing, signing, reading and writing. The data for this research was collected through observation and interview sessions after the game was completed. The analysis for the data is meant to show the effectiveness of the vocabulary lesson as well as the comprehension level of the hearing-impaired pupils prior to the activity. The findings revealed that three out of four pupils were able to display the mastery of four language skills correctly based on the topic of the vocabulary lesson. Only one of the pupils did not manage to read the sentences correctly after the activity. Thus, this research has added value to enhance and strengthen vocabulary lessons with a gamification approach, namely Go Fish English Game towards special needs pupils with hearing disabilities. Further research can be conducted to explore and discover the possibilities of other types of gamifications in teaching and learning of different language skills focusing on special needs pupils with other disabilities according to specific age, gender, and proficient level of English language.