A case study on the application of computer assisted vocabulary teaching material developed for hearing impaired students

The vocabulary knowlegde of hearing impaired students are less than their normally hearing peers due to hearing loss. This situation may cause them to experience difficulties of understanding and comprehension, thus render the communication with normal individuals difficult and therefore it may lead to isolation from the society. With the help of the possibilities provided by information technologies, learning environments suitable for the specific needs of these students can be developed and their learning difficulties caused by their hearing impairment can be reduced (Tüfekcioglu, 2003). At this point, the special methods which are used in the lessons by the teachers who have an important place in the education of hearing-impaired students, the teaching materials, the problems that the teachers encounter in the lessons and the solutions proposed by them are crucial. In this study, it was aimed to develop and apply a vocabulary teaching material based on Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning for the hearing impaired students and to examine the effect of the material on the students via the obsrvationd of the teachers. In addition to this, considering the opinions of the teachers, the problems experienced in the schools for the hearing impaired students and the solutions for these problems are presented. The study was conducted with 27 students in the Hearing Impaired Secondary School in Eastern Anatolia and 14 teachers in the school. In the study, case study method which is one of qualitative research methods was used. The developed vocabulary teaching material was presented to students in the classrooms via intelligent boards and under the supervision of the teachers for 8 weeks as an hour per week. When the findings were evaluated, it was observed that the vocabulary teaching material developed by the researcher increased the vocabulary of the students, increased their interest and participation in the lessons and the application yielded positive results as well as the students liked the application. Also, at the end of the study, the study suggests the use of visually enriched and interactive materials that will be prepared by using information technology to solve the learning difficulties experienced by the hearing impaired students. Keywords: Information Technologies, Multimedia Learning, Education, Hearing Impaired, , Vocabulary knowlegde, Instructional Material