Abstract

This study examined the determinants of auditory and academic performance in English language of students with hearing impairment in southwestern Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design of correlational type was adopted. The sample for this study comprised 448 male and female students with hearing impairment selected from secondary schools across southwestern Nigeria. The multistage sampling technique was adopted to select the schools, while the purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the respondents. Data were collected using the following instruments: Knowledge of Hearing Technology Questionnaire (r = 0.90), Acceptance of Hearing Technology Questionnaire (r = 0.79), Auditory Performance Scale (r = 0.83) and English Language Test). Four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation. The results showed that knowledge of hearing technology was negatively related to auditory performance among students with hearing impairment (r = -0.10; p<0.05). The results further revealed a negative relationship existed between acceptance of hearing technology and auditory performance of students with hearing impairment (r = -0.13; p<0.05). From the results, it was revealed that there was a positive, moderate significant relationship between knowledge of hearing technology (r = 0.46; p<0.05) and academic performance in English Language of students with hearing impairments. In addition, the results showed that the relationship between acceptance of hearing technology and academic performance in English for students with hearing impairment was positive and moderately significant (r = 0.41; p<0.05). Based on the results, students with hearing impairment should be counselled and encouraged by their teachers and parents to accept hearing technology for better auditory and academic performance in English language.