The Effects of Multimedia Stories of Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Celebrities on the Reading Comprehension and English Words Learning of Taiwanese Students with Hearing Impairment

[[abstract]]ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to improve the reading comprehension and to increase the English vocabulary of students with hearing impairment; with the sub-goal of encouraging them to strive for success. To overcome the reading difficulty of students with hearing impairment, the author developed a multimedia program with main ideas, graphic organizers and English key words integrated to make reading a more exciting, pleasant and understandable experience. The multimedia stories of Taiwanese deaf or hard-of-hearing celebrities included a famous model, a professor, a teacher, an athlete, a computer programmer, an illustrator, an insurance agent and a deaf leader. In the main idea identification, English word pronunciation, recognition, listening comprehension and lip-reading, post-test scores were significantly higher than pre-test scores. Students also found these stories encouraging and hoped they could have more similar multimedia stories