4. Difficulties at Birth During the birth or after that, there might be some events happening that cause
harm or damage to the baby, like premature birth or difficult birth when the baby suffers from lack of oxygen. As noticed, some people are born deaf as a
result of malformed ear drums. Others suffer from deafness as a result of accidents or damage to the auditory portions of the brain.
Knowing the causes is a way to approach the learners with hearing difficulty. By understanding how they acquired the hearing difficulty, teachers can
consider different strategies and methods in teaching and assisting learners during their language learning.
2.1.5.4 Classification of Hearing Difficulty
The classification of hearing difficulty helps in knowing the characteristics of the learners who suffer from it. Pierson 2002, as cited in
Widitesnowati 2012: 32, divides the classification into five categories. They are slight, mild, moderate, severe, and profound hearing loss. The first category is
slight hearing loss which means learners can hear vowel sounds well, but they may miss some consonants. In other words, their speech cannot be as correct as
normal students. Meanwhile, in mild hearing loss, students with hearing difficulty miss a lot when people are talking. It is also hard to get their focus back regarding
to one of the characteristics of young learners which is active. He also adds when students are hard to understand normal speech and can get the message when the
speaker is directly in front of them 5 or 6 feet away, they suffer from moderate
hearing loss. When students suffer from severe hearing loss, they cannot speak in a way strangers understand. As they are hearing voices, they seem hearing shrill
noise in such extern loudness as burglar alarm. Therefore, the students need to look at the speaker because they communicate with signs and little speech.
Furthermore, students possibly suffer from profound hearing loss. To communicate, they use signs, lip reading, and writing because their speech is
impossible to understand. Meanwhile, as cited in Shagga 2011: 52, MMOML 2007 determines
the degree of deafness by measuring hearing threshold which is the level in dB at which a signal is just barely heard. The louder a sound must be made to be heard,
the greater the degree of hearing loss. The degrees of hearing loss are not the same in all over the world. However, there are general averages. NICHCY 2010
shows the general degrees of hearing loss as below.
Table 2.2 The General Averages of Hearing Loss Degrees
The Degrees of Hearing Loss From dB
To dB
Normal Hearing Sensitivity 15
Minimal Hearing Loss 16
25 Mild Hearing Loss
26 40
Moderate Hearing Loss 41
55 Severe Hearing Loss
56 70
So Severe Hearing Loss 71
90 Profound Hearing Loss
91 greater
