This document provides an introduction and literature review on reading comprehension of various text types (narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative) in children with and without hearing impairments in inclusive schools. It outlines the objectives to ascertain achievement in reading comprehension of each text type and compare achievement across groups. It proposes that narrative and descriptive texts will be most beneficial for hearing impaired children and describes the methodology which will use a researcher-made test tool and t-test analysis on two groups of 7th grade students from Mumbai inclusive schools. The significance of the study is to help enhance reading comprehension for hearing impaired children.

1. Reading Comprehension of various Text types
in Children with & without Hearing
Impairment in Inclusive Schools
Presented by:- Guide:-
Devant Brahm Shah Dr. Varsha Gathoo
M.Ed. [H.I.] 2010-2011 Reader & Head
AYJNIHH Mumbai Department of Education
AYJNIHH Mumbai

2. INTRODUCTION
READING COMPREHENSION
Reading Comprehension is a complex process which
involves understanding the word meaning & consequent
verbal reasoning.
In simple words, Reading Comprehension is defined as
the level of understanding of a writing.
The ability to read the written language at a reasonable
rate with good comprehension has long been recognized
to be as important as oral skills, if not more important.
(Eskey,1970)

3. PRE-REQUISITES OF READING COMPREHENSION
Knowledge of the general syntactic and semantic
patterns of the language to translate from words to
meaning.
Knowledge of the conventions of communication such as
new knowledge for the revision of the old. (Clark &
Havilland, 1977)
Knowledge of the methods of the communication of text
structures, with specific knowledge of the topic being
discussed & the style of the speaker or writer.

4. READING & THE TEXTS
 By providing learners with an explicit rhetorical
understanding of texts and a metalanguage by which to
analyze them, teachers can assist students to see texts as
artifacts that can be explicitly questioned, compared and
deconstructed, thereby revealing their underlying
assumptions and ideologies. (Hyland,2003)

5. READING COMPREHENSION &
THE HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN
Students who have serious hearing problems or who
have impaired hearing at the pre-acquisition stage of
language confront with problems while they are learning
reading. (Girgin, 1999; Paul, 1997; Quigley & Paul, 1985)
Hearing Impaired children employ the same reading
skills and strategies as their hearing peers. (Moog &
Geers, 1985; Schirmer, 2000)

6. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 The severely and profoundly deaf child confronts with
two main problems in learning to read, the first &
underlying problem is that, most such children are
severely deficient in their knowledge of verbal language.
The second problem lies in perceiving the written words
reflecting the language code. (Clark et al, 1982)

7.  Reading Comprehension is an active and interactive
process between the readers and the written materials in
which readers attribute meanings to the text through
their background knowledge. (Goodman, 1995; Lewis &
Wray, 2000; Rasinski & Padak, 2004; Zwiers, 2004)

8. Some comprehension strategies may be better suited to
narrative text than expository text because of structural
differences between these genres. For example, a strategy
in which children listen for known words, generate
predictive inferences, and periodically confirm whether
predictions are accurate may be useful in comprehending
the narrative text. (Graham, Santos & Vanderplank, 2008;
Palincsar & Brown, 1984)

9.  Generation of inferences is crucial for understanding
narratives. For example, good comprehenders tend to
generate more explanatory or causal inferences during
the comprehension of narratives than predictive or
associative (knowledge-based) inferences or paraphrases.
(Laing & Kamhi, 2002; Trabasso & Magliano, 1996a)

10. NEED OF THE PRESENT STUDY
Good readers are active readers.
Good readers read different kinds of text differently.
In classrooms, the teacher is a motivator/stimulator.
A teacher should foster students expectations about
reading & arouse their interest to read.
This can be done by addressing learning styles &
provisions of different reading texts namely narrative ,
descriptive, expository and argumentative.

11. It was felt necessary to see whether in an Inclusive
classroom, students with and without hearing
impairment, have similar interest and aptitude for
different types of reading texts?, hence the present study
is aimed at reading comprehensions of various text types
among them.

12. EXPLANATION OF KEY TERMS
TYPES OF TEXTS
Descriptive:- These are texts based on perception in
space. Impressionistic descriptions of landscapes or
persons are often to be found in these, such as novels and
short stories.
Narrative:- These are texts based on perception of time.
Narration is a telling of stories, the succession of events is
given in chronological order, with a purpose to entertain,
to gain and hold a reader’s interest. The common
structure or basic plan of narrative text is known as
“Story Grammar”.

13. Expository:- It aims at explanation , that is , the cognitive
analysis and subsequent synthesis of complex facts.
Argumentative:- These texts are based on evaluation and
the subsequent subjective judgment in answer to a
problem. It refers to the reasons advanced for or against
a matter.

14. INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS
 In the present study, the Inclusive Schools means
those schools which facilitate the education of Children
with Hearing Impairment together with Children
without Hearing Impairment, providing instructions in
Hindi medium, situated in and around the Suburbs of
Mumbai.

15. OBJECTIVES
To ascertain the achievement in Reading Comprehension
of narrative text in Children with & without Hearing
Impairment.
To ascertain the achievement in Reading Comprehension
of descriptive text in Children with & without Hearing
Impairment.
To ascertain the achievement in Reading Comprehension
of expository text in Children with & without Hearing
Impairment.
To ascertain the achievement in Reading Comprehension
of argumentative text in Children with & without
Hearing Impairment.
To compare the achievement in Reading Comprehension
of all the four text types in Children with & without
Hearing Impairment.

16. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1- What percentage of Children with Hearing Impairment
benefits from-
text type percentage of students
a) Descriptive passage ………?…………….
b) Narrative passage …………?…………..
c) Expository passage ………?…………….
d) Argumentative passage …………?…………..
2- Which is the most beneficial text of all the four, for
Children with Hearing Impairment ?
3- Which is the most beneficial text of all the four, for
Children with Hearing Impairment ?

17. HYPOTHESIS
 The Narrative and Descriptive types will be highly
beneficial for Reading Comprehension among all the four
types of texts in Children with Hearing Impairment.

18. METHODOLOGY
Research Type: Survey
Sample : 2 Groups of students. Group A &B
Group A: 15 Children with Hearing Impairment from
various Inclusive schools studying in class 7th.
Group B: 15 children without hearing impairment from
various Inclusive schools, in equal proportion to their
hearing impaired peers, studying in class 7th.
Medium of instruction: Hindi.
Gender: Both boys & girls in almost equal numbers.

19. SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
The study will use three-stage sampling technique:-
 Stage 1:- At the first stage, Inclusive Schools will be
selected using stratified random sampling where strata
includes name of the Schools located in and around the
Suburbs of Mumbai.
 Stage 2:- At the second stage, Children with Hearing
Impairment will be selected, studying in class 7th , from
those schools.
 Stage 3:- And at the third stage, Children without
Hearing Impairment will be selected randomly from
same classes of the same schools, in equal numbers,
strictly in accordance with the Children with Hearing
Impairment selected.

20. TOOL OF THE STUDY
Researcher-made-test tools in the form of grid, having
different parameters based on Bloom’s Taxonomy will be
used in order to measure the achievement in Reading
Comprehension of four different passages. The text
passages and grid will be validated with the help of
experts .
TECHNIQUES OF THE DATA ANALYSES
t- Test will be used for statistical analyses.

21. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The present study enables the researcher to help generate
better Reading Comprehension and thereby enhances
the competencies of language in Children with & without
Hearing Impairment.
The present study identifies the similarities and
differences, if any, in comprehension of various types of
texts among Children with & without Hearing
Impairment.

22. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The present study includes only those children, with &
without Hearing Impaired, who are instructed in Hindi
medium only and not in any other language.
The present study includes the Hearing Impaired &
Hearing children studying in class 7th.
The present study includes the children only from
Inclusive schools and not from Special schools.
The present study confines itself in the geographical
constraints of the several Suburbs of Mumbai only.

23. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study would be helpful in assessing comprehension,
in diagnostic processes, to estimate the level of materials
that are appropriate for instruction and serve as
backdrop against which the comprehension skills and
knowledge of the students may be evaluated.
The study would be helpful to Children with Hearing
Impairment in employing strategies for the enhanced
comprehension of written texts through effective reading.

24. The study would prove effective to parents of Children
with Hearing Impairment in promotion of reading
activities, by facilitating the selection of written texts and
other print materials.
The study would also contribute to the enhancement of
effectiveness of Inclusive classrooms for facilitating
increased Reading Comprehensions in Children with
Hearing Impairment.

25. REFERENCES
BOOKS
Barr R., Blachowitch C.L.Z. & Marrilyn W.S., Reading
diagnosis for teachers , 3rd ed.
John R.B. & Singleton c., The psychological Assessment of
Reading.
Nicolson R., Reading skills & Dyslexia.
Dean G., Teaching Reading in Secondary schools, 2nd ed.

26. WEBSITES & OTHER RESOURCES
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1465/MR1465.
pdf
http://www4.pucsp.br./isfc/proceedings/artigos
pdf/06ad_ienkins_155a170.pdf
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1465/MR
1465.pdf
Pressley M. (2000), Comprehension Instruction: What Work,
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/68
Zwiers, J. (2004). Building reading comprehension habits in grades
6-12: A toolkit of classroom activities, Newark: International
Reading Association.

27. Thank you