ENGLISH TEACHERS’ CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES IN TEACHING DEAF STUDENTS IN BENGKULU CITY

English teachers can have unique challenges in teaching English to deaf
students. They need to utilize special strategies and resources. Gaining insight about
the teachers’ challenges and strategies in teaching English for deaf students is
important to enhance English language education for deaf learners. This research is
intended to find the challenges of English teachers in teaching deaf students, besides
to find out the strategies practiced by English teachers to overcome the challenges.
The design was a qualitative research design. The data for this study were obtained
from classroom observations and interviews conducted in-depth with two English
teachers from two special schools (SLBN) located in Bengkulu City. The
instruments were an observation sheet and an interview guidance. The results also
show that teachers faced various challenges, including adapting the teaching
material, encountering communication barriers and maintaining the motivation of
the students. They used visual aids, interactive media, clear nonverbal
communication, and student-centered approaches to overcome these challenges.
The study also highlighted that resource limitation and the variety of sign language
systems impacted the effectiveness of teaching. Deaf students face great challenges
and English teachers use a wide range of effective strategies to overcome them.
The outcome underscores the value of visual, interactive and relational pedagogies.
It is important to better understand these issues in other contexts and with a greater
diversity of disability.
Keywords: Challenges, Strategies, Deaf Students