The purpose of this study was to help hearing-impaired students understand the main idea of articles and improve their self-concept. To overcome the reading difficulties faced by hearing-impaired students, the first author developed a CD of Multimedia “Deaf People's Success and Striving” Stories, which employed main-idea picture cues, voice or sign videos, graphic organizers, and self-monitoring questions as reading strategies. The 24 characters in these multimedia stories include doctors, lawyers, presidents, professors, senior officials, and movie stars. Counterbalanced design and two-factor mixed design were used to test the effect of these multimedia stories on main-idea understanding. For the sample group of 30 hearing-impaired students, the scores on computer-intervention and posttests were found to be significantly higher than those on the pretest. There was no significant difference between the scores on the computer intervention and posttest, which meant the effect was maintained. Pretest and posttest design was used to test the effect of these multimedia stories on the self-concept improvement of hearing-impaired students. It was found that after reading the 24 multimedia stories, these students' self-concept improved very significantly and achieved a .001 level of significance.
The purpose of this study was to help hearing-impaired students understand the main idea of articles and improve their self-concept. To overcome the reading difficulties faced by hearing-impaired students, the first author developed a CD of Multimedia “Deaf People's Success and Striving” Stories, which employed main-idea picture cues, voice or sign videos, graphic organizers, and self-monitoring questions as reading strategies. The 24 characters in these multimedia stories include doctors, lawyers, presidents, professors, senior officials, and movie stars. Counterbalanced design and two-factor mixed design were used to test the effect of these multimedia stories on main-idea understanding. For the sample group of 30 hearing-impaired students, the scores on computer-intervention and posttests were found to be significantly higher than those on the pretest. There was no significant difference between the scores on the computer intervention and posttest, which meant the effect was maintained. Pretest and posttest design was used to test the effect of these multimedia stories on the self-concept improvement of hearing-impaired students. It was found that after reading the 24 multimedia stories, these students' self-concept improved very significantly and achieved a .001 level of significance.