The Best Listening Environment in School According to Hard-of-hearing Pupils

Abstract

The aim of this study was to illuminate the listening strategies which are revealed when pupils described their choice of the “best listening environment” in school. The study comprises 165 hard-of-hearing pupils from five compulsory schools in Sweden. The results are mainly based on the pupils’ drawings and their attached written explanations. The pupils’ explanations are analysed in the form of four different needs associated with being a listener: a “cleaned-up” sound environment, visual support, conversation rules and comfortable surroundings. The explanations can be seen as reflective knowledge and experiences of listening strategies. Not every pupil in this study has a verbalised awareness of listening strategies in all categories but, as a community, they describe a lot of experiences and knowledge to be shared. How to take the role of listener and continuously develop new strategies might be a matter of self-image.