| dc.description.abstract | Though, a considerable amount of studies on visual impairment have supported the
concept of ‘sensory compensation’, a growing body of studies has identified Visually Impaired
Language Learners (VILLs) as poor spellers. However, ‘social model of disability’ has emphasized that
the society contributes crucially to disable physically impaired persons. Reading between lines, there
is a room for some socio-psycholinguistic factors which motivate VILLs to be poor spellers. Though,
several attempts have been made to investigate linguistic restrictions towards VILLs, treatments by
researchers to the socio-psycholinguistic underpinnings for spelling errors of VILLs are not
satisfactory. Therefore, the present study was carried out with the objective of exploring the
underlying socio-psycholinguistic factors which encourage poverty of the spelling of VILLs. Exploratory
research design was adopted in order to allow for an in-depth investigation on the topic under study.
Both quantitative and qualitative data were used for the purpose of achieving the objective of the
study successfully. Evidence from the present study suggests that visual dominance and the
unconsciousness on the potentiality of sensory compensation in spelling system, instructional
strategies of spelling and Braille code of Sinhala encourage poverty of the spelling of VILLs. The
Researcher has suggested some effective technological remedies on the basis of the results revealed
through the study to get around the bottlenecks, facing VILLs in the contexts of inclusive linguistic
behaviours due to poor spelling. | |
