(The estimation of the number of deaf people in any society is approximately. Deaf and severely hard-of-hearing sign language users have been particularly neglected in this respect due to their relatively small number and low visibility.

THE EDUCATION OF SPECIAL NEEDS groups has received increased attention worldwide in the past few decades (UNESCO, 1994 United Nations, 2007), but only recently have second language acquisition (SLA) researchers started to think about them as language learners and language users who are active participants in shaping the multilingual discourse community of our globalized world. Furthermore, teaching should include the presentation of effective learning strategies as well as the introduction of autonomous ways of learning. To overcome these difficulties motivating and effective learning environments have to be created where the use of the national sign language contributes to the efficiency of teaching.

Our results indicate that deaf and severely hard-of-hearing students’ foreign language learning experiences are fraught with challenges and setbacks despite their motivation and eagerness to learn foreign languages. In order to investigate their foreign language learning processes, deaf and severely hard-of-hearing students’ motivation, beliefs, and strategies were measured and analyzed. Data was collected in three European countries with piloted and barrier-free instruments.

In order to provide a better understanding of the challenges this group of learners face, a mixed methods study was designed including a questionnaire survey to provide generalizable results for our context and an interview study to get a deeper understanding of the issue from the insiders’ perspective as well. The aim of this study was to investigate deaf and severely hard-of-hearing students’ foreign language learning characteristics.

Foreign language learning and healing