Opening Doors or Creating Barriers?: The Influence of Interpreters on Levels of Communication Apprehension among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students.

摘要

Classroom communication apprehension (CA) affects roughly 70% of undergraduate college students (Bowers, 1986, p. 373). After a discussion of CA as a theory, a survey tool is presented to measure if there is a difference in the amount and type of CA experienced by deaf and hard-of-hearing college students when compared to their hearing peers. The survey includes McCroskey's PRCA-24 tool for measuring CA and several additional questions on how the presence of a sign language interpreter influences levels of classroom CA. The survey's 155 respondents report a statistically significant difference in the amount and type of CA experienced. Limitations and possibilities for future research are discussed.;Keywords: communication apprehension, deaf, postsecondary education, interpreter, PRCA-24.