The Effects of Application of Visual Materials and Explanatory Captions on Hearing-Impaired Students’ Comprehension of Science Concepts

Kim, Ji Sook; Kim, Young-Wook

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2002;7(3): 144-159.

Ji Sook Kim^` , and Young-Wook Kim^`

김지숙(Ji Sook Kim)| 김영욱(Young-Wook Kim)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of applying visual materials and explanatory captions to hearing-impaired students’ comprehension of science concepts. The subjects of this study were 16 hearing-impaired students in special schools. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups: the visual-materials-only group and the visual- materials-with-explanatory-captions group. In the measurement of comprehension of science concepts, a post-test was performed at the termination of learning and a follow-up test was performed one week later. The qualitative analysis was used to investigate the effects of captioning experience and the practical use of clue. T-test was used for the data analysis. The results of this study were as follows: First, in the application of learning materials, the visual-materials-with-explanatory-captions group was significantly better than the other group of visual-materials-only group in comprehension of science concepts. Second, all subjects experienced watching the captioned television. The comprehension of science concepts was not related to the frequency nor to the experience in the group in which the subjects watched captioned television. In conclusion, visual materials are beneficial to the comprehension of science concepts. However, these is not enough to help the comprehension for abstract concepts. For the ability of hearing-impaired students’ comprehension of science concepts, we should consider students’ reading level, vocabulary level, appropriate captioning speeds.