Reading Style and the Text Comprehension of People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Focusing on Oral Reading With Signed Japanese

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of various style of reading on the text comprehension of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. In a preliminary study, participants ( N ＝ 32) completed a Reading Span Test (RST) in 3 ways: oral reading, silent reading with Signed Japanese (SJ), and oral reading with Signed Japanese. The results indicated that both silent and oral reading with Signed Japanese had lesser cognitive loads for people who are deaf or hard of hearing than did oral reading alone. In the main study, participants ( N ＝ 40) completed a Sentence Verifıcation Technique (SVT) task in 3 ways: oral reading, silent reading, and oral reading with Signed Japanese. The Sentence Verifıcation Technique assesses reading comprehension; it is reflective of the text processing levels proposed by Kintsch (1994). The scores were analyzed for each reading comprehension level. In oral reading with Signed Japanese, the participants’ scores were higher than in the other two reading techniques at a situational level as well as at a textual level. These results suggest that oral reading with Signed Japanese was not a high cognitive load for people who are deaf or hard of hearing who know both Japanese and either Japanese Sign Language or Signed Japanese, and that oral reading may be enhanced by both text memory and visual images. Moreover, it appeared that reading comprehension at the situational level was promoted when reading comprehension was also done at the textual level. Limitations of the present study include that the participants had full knowledge of both Japanese and either Japanese Sign Language or Signed Japanese, that oral reading with Signed Japanese was used with Signed Japanese only and not with Sign Language, and that the Sentence Verifıcation Technique testing was based on sixth-grade study aid books for reading comprehension only.