Clinical Examination of Three Methods of Teaching Reading Comprehension to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students: From Research to Classroom Applications

Abstract

This study shows how to integrate research-based teaching methods in reading comprehension with real classroom teaching activities. The performance of 30 male (n = 13; mean age = 11.51 years) and female (n = 17; mean age = 12.11 years) deaf and hard-of-hearing students from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was examined under three teaching conditions: the key word strategy, modified reciprocal teaching, and the basic reading approach. Analyses showed that the key word strategy and modified reciprocal teaching significantly enhanced students' overall performance in reading comprehension scores. Results revealed that any one of these three methods would be adequate for teaching factual information. However, results indicated that the key word strategy and modified reciprocal teaching would be better for teaching factual information, comprehension, and memorization skills than the basic reading approach.