Exploring the Potential Usage of Mobile Technologies Among the Hearing-Impaired Students in Learning English as a Second Language (ESL)

The proliferation of mobile technologies has created a great impact in the education field. Numerous studies are conducted on the usage of mobile technologies among the special needs students including their acceptance towards the technologies, its advantages as well as the obstacles on the utilisation of mobile technologies. However, fewer studies are done on the usage of mobile technologies among the hearing-impaired (HI) students in ESL teaching and learning session. There is a need for more studies on that as the number of hearing-impaired people are increasing continuously around the globe. Hence, the aim of the study is to explore the potential usage of mobile technologies among the HI students in learning ESL. In-depth interviews are conducted among the selected ten hearing-impaired students from four different secondary schools in Malaysia and the notable finding demonstrates the majority of them believe that mobile technologies assist them in learning. This study provides the insights for the education stakeholders, especially the policy makers and inventors to create the solutions and improvise the features of mobile technologies that are more user-friendly towards the hearing-impaired students. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.