Date of Award

2016

Degree Name

Special Education

College

College of Education

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Research Paper

First Advisor

Lori Howard

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using contextually-based vocabulary instruction and metacognitive skills to teach multiple meaning words to deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. Deaf and hard of hearing students have limited vocabularies and struggle to understand and use multiple meaning words and as a result, their reading comprehension suffers (Paul, 1987). Furthermore, DHH readers are less likely to use metacognitive techniques such as looking back or rereading a text to monitor comprehension, drawing upon background knowledge to define unfamiliar words, and detecting inappropriate information in passages than their hearing peers (Marschark & Spencer, 2003). Second grade students with hearing loss were given a pretest to evaluate their understanding of multiple meaning words. Following the pretest they each received three, thirty minute sessions of one-on-one, contextually-based vocabulary instruction on six multiple meaning words (2 words each session). The metacognitive skills that were addressed include making predictions and inferences, self-monitoring, and relating new information to background knowledge. Students were then given a posttest, consisting of the same format as the pretest but using different vocabulary words.

Note(s)

CISP 615 Special Education Research

Subject(s)

Vocabulary -- Study and teaching -- Aids and devices.

Deaf students -- Study and teaching.

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