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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 506 – 511

WCES 2014

Comprehension of Figurative Language

by Hearing Impaired Children in Special Primary Schools

Do Long Gianga*, Chung Inhob

a
Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan
b
Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Abstract

This study examined the comprehension of figurative language of 215 hearing impaired children at special primary schools, and
557 hearing children at regular primary schools in Vietnam. The figurative language tests were developed using idioms and
proverbs in the Vietnamese language textbooks from grade 2 to grade 5 of primary schools. The results showed that hearing
impaired children comprehended figurative language much lower than hearing children. The figurative language knowledge of
hearing impaired children developed over grades, and their figurative language knowledge was found to be related to reading
levels, but not to the ages or hearing levels.
© 2014The
© 2015 TheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of WCES 2014.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of WCES 2014
Keywords: hearing impaired children; figurative language; Vietnam

1. Introduction

The provision of formal education for children with hearing impairment in Vietnam began over 125 years ago
with the establishment of Lai Thieu special school with an approach that used sign language as the language of
instruction (Pitrois, 1914). Currently, there are over 1.1 million disabled children in Vietnam making up 1.18% of
the total population (VMOET, 2005). Out of 120,000 hearing impaired children, around 40,000 children are

* Do Long Giang. Tel: +818035910366

E-mail address: longgiangsf@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of WCES 2014
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.448
 Do Long Giang and Chung Inho / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 506 – 511 507

provided with education at 50 special schools and all inclusive schools all over the country (Woodward, Nguyen, &
Nguyen, 2004). Despite a long and rich history of the education for hearing impaired children, Vietnam still lacks a
lot of favorable conditions in providing education for these children, many of them still never go to school and those
who do attend school often drop out before completing even grade five, with very few hearing impaired children
receiving a secondary or tertiary education (World Bank, 2008). In this field of research, some studies have been
carried out to meet the practical needs of the education for hearing impaired children in Vietnam in recent years.
However, very few studies exist on the reading of hearing impaired children. Unlike hearing children whose all or
most of the multiple processes involved in reading are likely to be developed at a certain level by the beginning
reading stage, deaf children are likely to arrive at beginning reading with a very limited knowledge base,
inadequately developed cognitive and linguistic skills (King & Quiley, 1985). The literature dealing directly with
deafness and reading achievement usually notes the low reading levels of deaf children as compared to their hearing
peers (Monreal & Hernandez, 2005; Traxler, 2000; Wauters, Bon, & Tellings, 2006). Research also stresses that
besides vocabulary and syntax, figurative language is another area in which many students who are deaf or hard of
hearing experience difficulties (Trezek, Wang, & Paul, 2010), and knowledge of figurative language, including
similes, metaphors, idioms, and proverbs may influence comprehension of the English language (Smith, Schloss &
Israelite, 1986). According to a research on reading of hearing impaired children in Vietnam, there were significant
differences in reading comprehension between hearing impaired children in special primary schools and hearing
children in regular primary schools (Do & Chung, 2012). This research, however, did not examine the figurative
language, an important study content of the curricula of the Vietnamese language subject at primary schools. In the
present study, we investigated the comprehension of figurative language of hearing impaired children in special
primary schools in Vietnam in comparison with hearing children of equivalent grades.

2. Method

2.1 Subjects

215 hearing impaired children served as subjects for this study. They were drawn from six special primary
schools located in six different cities. These special schools are representative of the diversity of educational settings
in which hearing impaired children are taught in Vietnam. The subjects were from second grade to fifth grade, and
were between the ages of 8 and 19 years with a mean age of 14.4 (SD = 2.2), 96.3% of them had severe to profound
hearing impairment (more than 70 dB), 3.7% had moderate hearing impairment (41 – 70 dB) in the better unaided
ear. For the purpose of comparison, the tests were also administered to 557 hearing children from two regular
primary schools, who aged from 8 to 12 years old with a mean age of 9.6 (SD = 0.2).

2.2 Materials

The figurative language tests were constructed using idioms and proverbs in the Vietnamese language textbooks
for children at primary schools. We made a list of all 179 idioms and proverbs in order of appearance in the
Vietnamese language textbooks from grade 2 to grade 5, then we asked seven teachers to classify them into three
levels: easy, medium and difficult. The idioms and proverbs which were consistently agreed by all or a majority of
the teachers would be chosen to make the tests. The tests used multiple choice formats. Each test included 15 idioms
and proverbs which appeared in the textbooks of corresponding grade level. In addition, to examine the development
of figurative language knowledge, the tests of higher grades included 3 idioms and proverbs of lower grades. The
idioms and proverbs were presented independent of context, four response choices were provided for each item,
only one of which constituted the target response. The figurative language tests were subjected to reliability and
validity analyses. These tests were developed from idioms and proverbs in the Vietnamese language textbooks of
primary schools. The target idioms and proverbs were carefully chosen from the teacher’s rating. Thus the figurative
language tests had content validity. The Cronbach’s alphas for tests of grade 2 through grade 5 was .68, .74, .76,
and .77 respectively, which indicated acceptable levels of internal consistency for figurative language tests. In order
to examine the relationship between figurative language knowledge and reading comprehension, we also
administered the reading comprehension tests to all children. The reading comprehension tests were taken from the
508 Do Long Giang and Chung Inho / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 506 – 511

“Vietnamese Language Testing Exercises for Students at Primary School” (Dao & Nguyen, 2009; Tran & Dao,
2009).

2.3 Procedure

Administration of the figurative language tests took place at class. Children in each grade were required to take
the tests corresponding to their grade levels. Instructions for choosing answers were given, as well as help with the
sample questions if needed. The children then proceeded with the rest of the test independently. No time limit was
set. In general, it took around twenty minutes for the children to complete the tests. The number of correct answers
was the student’s score.

3. Results

3.1 Figurative language test results

The figurative language test results revealed that the scores of hearing impaired children in all grades were much
lower than hearing children. Specifically, the mean percentage score of hearing impaired children was
approximately 33.1 across four grades, whereas the mean percentage score of hearing children was 82.2 on average.
The Mann-Whitney’s U tests showed significant differences between the scores of hearing impaired children and
hearing children in all grades. Results are as follows, grade 2: U=162.5, Z=11.75, P=.00; grade 3: U=331.5, Z=9.99,
P=.00; grade 4: U=130.5, Z=10.18, P=.00; grade 5: U=61.5, Z=8.82, P=.00.
Table 1 Figurative language test scores
Grade 2** Grade 3** Grade 4** Grade 5**
Grade
HIC HC HIC HC HIC HC HIC HC
Mean percentage
30.0 80.5 34.8 78.9 33.9 85.9 33.7 84.1
score
SD 13.8 15.5 12.4 15.1 15.6 13.9 14.7 13.3
Percentage score 0- 33.3- 5.6- 16.7- 4.8- 19.0- 0- 33.3-
range 60.0 100 66.7 100 76.2 100 70.8 100

**significant difference found (significant at p=0.01); HC: Hearing children; HIC: Hearing impaired children

The Interquartile Range was used to closely examine the differences of score between hearing impaired children
and hearing children. Results showed that most of hearing impaired children (98.1%) had scores equivalent to the
scores of the first quarter of hearing children. Only very few hearing impaired children (1.9%) had the equivalent
scores with the second quarter of hearing children.

3.2 Development of figurative language knowledge

For hearing impaired children group, the one way ANOVA showed a significant effect of grade level on
figurative language of grade 2, F(3, 211) = 2.76, p = .043, with the mean percentage score of grade 5 (M = 45.1) was
significantly different than grade 2 (M = 27.6). There was also a significant effect of grade level on figurative
language of grade 3, F(2, 137) = 4.34, p = .015, the mean percentage score of grade 5 (M = 39.2) was significantly
different than grade 3 (M = 21.8). Similarly, in hearing children group, the one way ANOVA showed a significant
effect of grade level on figures of speech of grade 2, F(3, 553) = 7.06, p = .000, the mean percentage score of grade
5 (M = 94.4) was significantly higher than grade 2 (M = 85.5). For figures of speech of grade 3, a significant effect
of grade level was also found, F(2, 414) = 5.80, p = .003, the mean percentage score of grade 5 (M = 83.2) was
significantly higher than grade 3 (M = 72.5).
The results also revealed that when tested on the same idioms and proverbs, hearing children in lower grades
always had much better scores than hearing impaired children in higher grades. For example, in case of figurative
 Do Long Giang and Chung Inho / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 506 – 511 509

language of grade 2, the mean percentage score of hearing children in grade 2 was 85.5, while the mean percentage
score of hearing impaired children in grade 5 was 45.1.

Table 2 Comprehension of figurative language of lower grades

HIC’s score on figurative language of lower grades HC’s score on figurative language of lower grades

Grade 2 3 4 5 Grade 2 3 4 5

Mean FL of grade 2* 27.6 35.2 32.0 45.1 Mean FL of grade 2* 85.5 83.7 91.0 94.4
percen- percen
FL of grade 3* 21.8 34.0 39.2 FL of grade 3* 72.5 75.4 83.2
tage -tage
score FL of grade 4 38.6 33.3 score FL of grade 4 81.3 82.2

FL (Figurative language)
*significant difference found (significant at p=0.05)

3.3 Relationship of figurative language knowledge and reading comprehension

The Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine relationships between the figurative language
scores and reading comprehension scores. We found that figurative language and reading comprehension scores of
hearing impaired children were weakly correlated in grade 2 (r = .31, p = .008), grade 3 (r = .33, p = .018), and
moderately correlated in grade 4 (r = .56, p = .000), grade 5 (r = .44, p = .010). For hearing children, the two scores
were weakly correlated in grade 2 (r = .32, p = .000), grade 4 (r = .29, p = .001), grade 5 (r = .38, p = .000), and
moderately correlated in grade 3 (r = .50, p = .000). These findings suggest that the figurative language knowledge
of hearing impaired children and hearing children were correlated with their reading comprehension.

3.4 Relationship of figurative language knowledge and ages, hearing levels

Most of hearing impaired children in this study had severe to profound hearing impairment, and their average age
was very high, around 14.4 years old. There were many cases that hearing impaired children at age of 18 or even
older were in the second grade and other grades. The age of hearing impaired children who studied in the same
grade also varied greatly, for example, the age difference between the oldest and the youngest hearing impaired
children of the same grade was as much as 9 years old as in the grade 3 (age range: 10-19). A hypothesis here is
that: do hearing impaired children that are older or having better residual hearing ability, also comprehend figurative
language better than their classmates? Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were computed to assess the
relationship between the figurative language test scores and ages, and hearing levels of hearing impaired children in
each grade. However, we found no correlation between those variables in hearing impaired children.

4. Discussion

In the present study, we examined the comprehension of figurative language of hearing impaired children at
special primary schools. Our results showed that the figurative language knowledge of hearing impaired children to
be much poorer than that of hearing children. Furthermore hearing impaired children not only had lower figurative
language knowledge than grade-matched hearing children, but also hearing children in the lower grades. The poor
performance of hearing impaired children on figurative language of this study corresponds to the results of other
studies. Conley (1976) tested samples of 643 hearing students aged 7 to 19 years and 137 deaf students aged 13 to
20 on a test of English idiom comprehension. She found that the deaf subjects were significantly poorer in their
idiom comprehension than their hearing peers. Giorcelli (1982) constructed a test of figurative language consisting
of 10 specific aspects of figurative language, and found that the hearing subjects performed at significantly higher
levels than the deaf subjects on the total test and 7 of the 10 subtests. Payne (1982) controlled vocabulary and syntax
and included thematic pictures in an investigation of comprehension of idiomatic phrases by deaf and hearing
510 Do Long Giang and Chung Inho / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 506 – 511

students and found that the hearing students performed significantly better than the deaf students on all levels of
semantic difficulty and for all syntactic constructions. Given the deaf children’s relative lack of experiential
diversity (Marschark, Lang & Albertini, 2002) and syntactic and semantic skills (Paul & Quigley, 1994), it would
not be surprising to find that they have little skill in understanding the many nonliteral aspects of English (Boatner
& Gates, 1969). In particular, figurative language abilities have been shown to depend on classification skills and,
especially, the ability to see relationships across domains as superseding superficial similarities, an area in which
deaf children are seen to lag behind hearing peers (Ottem, 1980). In the present study we found a development of
figurative language knowledge in hearing impaired children. Specifically, hearing impaired children in grade 5
scored significantly higher than hearing impaired children in grade 2, and grade 3 when tested on the figurative
language of grade 2 and grade 3 respectively. This result indicated that the development of figurative language
knowledge of hearing impaired children in primary schools is similar to that of hearing children but at a slower pace.
Our study revealed that there were correlations between figurative language knowledge and reading comprehension
level of hearing impaired children in all grades. However this correlation is not strong enough for figurative
language knowledge to appear to be an important predictor of reading comprehension level. The finding is in line
with the study results of Fruch, Wilbur and Fraser (1984). They investigated comprehension of 20 English idioms by
287 hearing impaired children between 13.6 to 15.8 years old, and indicated that reading levels was closely related
with the idiom test scores. Orlando and Shulman (1989) studied the comprehension of figurative language of twelve
severe to profound hearing impaired children, aged 9 to 19 years. They instructed hearing impaired children to read
sentences with similes, metaphors, idioms, and proverbs, and to explain them, and also found that the performance
of hearing impaired children appeared dependent upon reading level. As with syntax, a limited understanding of
figurative language cannot fully explain the poor overall reading achievement of students who are deaf or hard of
hearing; however, it is generally accepted that their figurative language knowledge is closely related to their reading
comprehension (Trezek, Wang, & Paul, 2010). In the present study, no effect of the age or hearing level of hearing
impaired children on their figurative language knowledge was found out. In other words, being older or less hearing
impaired than other classmates does not guarantee that the hearing impaired children would have a better
understanding of figurative language. This is presumably due to the facts that the hearing impaired children in
Vietnam often go to schools at a very late age, and miss out the most appropriate period for learning a language
without any kind of early intervention. Moreover, because of the high price of hearing aid, as well as the
maintenance and repair services for hearing aids are not always available, and the shortage of specialists and
teachers trained in auditory verbal education and early intervention techniques, many hearing impaired children do
not have a hearing aid, or they stop wearing hearing aids after some time because they cannot receive adequate
support of use of the hearing aids (Charles & Nguyen, 2005). Another reason is that most of the special schools do
not pay enough attention to, or try to effectively utilize the residual hearing ability of the hearing impaired children
in learning. In summary, this study showed that the figurative language knowledge of hearing impaired children was
significantly lower than hearing children in all grades of primary schools. There was a development of figurative
language knowledge of hearing impaired children. The figurative language knowledge of hearing impaired children
has a relation with their reading comprehension, but not related to their ages or hearing levels. This result lends
support to the contentions of teachers that figurative expressions present a major problem in reading for hearing
impaired children (Paul & Quigley, 1994). Further research is needed to find effective intervention to help to
improve the figurative language knowledge as well as the overall reading ability of hearing impaired children in the
special schools.

References

Charles, R., & Nguyen, C.K. (2005). Inclusive education for hearing impaired and hearing impaired children in Vietnam. Pearl S. Buck
International.
Conley, J.E. (1976). The role of idiomatic expressions in the reading of the deaf children. American Annals of the Deaf, 121, 381-385.
Do, L.G, & Chung, I. (2012). The level of reading achievement of hearing impaired children in special primary schools in Vietnam.
Communication Disorder Research, 40 (2) 71-83.
Fruchter, A., Wilbur, R., & Fraser, B. (1984). Comprehension of idioms by hearing impaired students. Volta Review, 86, 7-19.
Giorcelli, L. (1982). The comprehension of some aspects of figurative language of deaf and hearing subjects. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Illinois, Urbana.
 Do Long Giang and Chung Inho / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 (2015) 506 – 511 511

Orlando, A., & Shulman, B. (1989). Severe-to-profound hearing-impaired children’s comprehension of figurative language. Journal of Childhood
Communication Disorders, 12, 157-165.
Payne, J. (1982). A study of the comprehension of verb-particle combinations among deaf and hearing subjects. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Smith, M. A., Schloss, P. J., & Israelite, N. K. (1986). Evaluation of a simile recognition treatment program for hearing-impaired students.
Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorder, 51 (2), 134-139
Woodward, J., Nguyen, T.H., & Nguyen, T.T.T. (2004). Providing higher educational opportunities to hearing impaired adults in Vietnam
through Vietnamese sign languages: 2000-2003. Hearing impaired Worlds, 20 (3), 232-263.
 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 187 (2015) 464 – 469

PSIWORLD 2014

Drawing development of hearing and voice, recovery methods of

hearing and intonation impairments
Ioan Oarcea*
Transilvania University of Braúov, Faculty of Music, Eroilor Street, no. 29, Braúov, Romania

Abstract

The human voice is the most complete, complex and expressive communication instrument of musical language. The artistic
qualities of the human voice can be affected by hearing and intonation dysfunctions that have a negative effect on musical
intelligibility and expressivity. Hearing and voice training is a component of the musical education, as the didactic mission of
music teachers does not only address gifted students, but all, to the extent of their ability for musical communication. The
methods used for correcting false singing pursue an improvement in sound production, in perception and memory.
©
© 2015 The Authors.
2015 Published Published
by Elsevier by Elsevier
Ltd. This Ltd.
is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PSIWORLD2014.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PSIWORLD 2014.
Keywords:art, communication dysfunctions, vocal recovery, education, training

1. Introduction

Correct musical intonation is conditioned by three determining factors: hearing (good functioning of the nerve
system), sound emission (intonation) and musical memory.
The conclusions of this synopsis are based on analysing the phenomenon and successfully experimenting vocal
recovery methods within the following types of groups where I worked as a music teacher: middle school pupils in
the general culture education system and middle and high school pupils in the vocational education system.
The first ascertainment highlighted the fact that all pupils who have had a practical musical experience in their
family, church, school or various artistic groups (choirs, vocal groups ...) manifest obvious musical skills, as parents,
educators from pre-school education, primary school teachers and music teachers play a decisive part in the activity

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +040-722-257 034; fax: +040-68-367 723.

E-mail address:ioan_oarcea@yahoo.fr

1877-0428 © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of PSIWORLD 2014.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.087
 Ioan Oarcea / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 187 (2015) 464 – 469 465

of rendering children more musical. By contrast, pupils who did not benefit from musical education in their family,
church or school became unformed, timid, and unable to use their own voice (Oarcea, I., 2010).

2. Factors determining hearing, intonation and rhythm impairments

A non-musical individual, defined as tone deaf, is a person deprived of voice, deprived of the possibility to
accurately sing a tune. The wording is partly correct, because any individual who has intonation inflexions in the
spoken voice towards high or low has a voice, but due to physiological vocal impairments and due to the existing
neurological and psychological dysfunctions, the individual does not have the ability to complexly model and align
the spoken towards the singing voice. Awareness and understanding of the causes of physiological, neurological
and psychological dysfunctions of the child represent the starting point in the recovery from singing out of tune,
which can be determined by hereditary, medical or educational factors. From a medical point of view, we can
encounter innate hereditary anomalies, such as deformations of the larynx, mouth or throat, which affect the
respiratory system and which can be observed in the sound of the voice, whereas the neurological anomalies cause
dysfunctions in the area of perception and artistic expression, of the neuro-psychology of music.
Out of tune singing at children can be caused by dysfunctions of the intonation and hearing due to inhibition,
cancellation or lateness of mental processes, which affect the creativity of singing. It can be caused by psychological
factors (shyness, fear, constraint) and temperament structure (hyperactive or calm child, with intense speaking, or
hypotonic with a dead voice, without timbre), which can determine the lack of attention and focusing regarding the
height of the sound, lack of motivation and interest to sing, to make music.
Accuracy of intonation, with implications on the health of the vocal chords, can be affected by inadequate
breathing and faulty impostation. As a biological process, breathing has beneficial effects on the blood circulation
and on the nervous system. In vocal singing, the musical sound is produced with the help of the air column, and
correct breathing offers the performer the possibility to support the music phrase (Lamboley, D., 2001). By
impostation we understand the position of the mouth during singing that is how the lips, teeth, palate, tongue and
larynx act together for the sound sonority to have expressiveness and homogeneity. There is a clear difference
between the mouth’s breathing and position in current speech and breathing and impostation during vocal singing
(Cegolea, G., 1995).
Concerning the melodic flow, non-musical individuals – without a musical sense – lack the ability to differentiate
between the musical height; they are aware of the ascendant or descendant flow of sounds, but imprecisely so; their
ambitus is restricted and they have the tendency to sing in the same register as the spoken voice. This dysfunction
can be of temperamental nature, and passive children make the most mistakes in differentiating height. The sense of
rhythm is a movement factor. Singing with rhythm implies the flow of sound pulsations in a measured sequence of
impulses (Daniélou, A., 1978). The sounds are more easily imprinted in memory if they have rhythm, because the
sense of rhythm is tributary to physiological and dynamic laws, as well as to those of tempo (of agogics).
The lack of rhythmical synchronisation, unequalisation of durations as well as the growth or acceleration of the
tempo can have several causes: inaccurate knowledge of the part, incomplete memorising of certain fragments, the
dense structure of the rhythm and distances of the melodic line, the prosodic structure of the text, a difficult melodic
texture, extended dimension of the musical phrases, insufficient physical and vocal preparation for singing, the
acoustics of the hall, etc.The inability to sing accurately can be determined by the lack of a proper environment and
of a musical practice within the family, by an erroneous academic education, by an improper education system, or
by lack of teaching experience. From this point of view, one of the frequent errors of the present musical education
is to employ parts from the repertory of adults while working with children, with insurmountable difficulties of
melody and rhythm and with a theme which exceeds the understanding ability of their age. Sometimes, exotic
repertories are favoured, avoiding parts accessible to their age from the community cultural heritage. The difficult,
approximate intonation in an ambitus that is inaccessible for the age causes the deformation of intonation with
effects on audio acuity. The phenomenon is sometimes worsened by the non-musical vocal pattern of the trainer.
Noise constitutes the main disruptive factor of the auditory and vocal ability, alongside viral infections, chemical
pollution, and the humidity of the environment, continuous speaking or everyday stress.
This is the percentage graph of the factors that determined dysfunctions of hearing, intonation and rhythm in
middle school pupils from four middle schools in Braƕov and Săcele (11 – 14 years): genetic and congenital
466 Ioan Oarcea / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 187 (2015) 464 – 469

anomalies (2 %), neurological and mental anomalies (3 %), attention, concentration, memorising (8 %), voice
mutation in boys (9 %), temperament structure(10%), inhibition, timidity, fear (13 %), inefficient breathing (17 %),
faulty impostation (21 %), lack of musical education in the family 64 %;

genetic and congenital anomalies

64% neurological and mental anomalies
attention, concentration, memorising
voice mutation in boys
temperament structure
17% 21% inhibition, timidity, fear
8% 9% 10% 13% inefficient breathing
2% 3% faulty impostation
lack of musical education in the family

Fig. 1

In the same school groups it was noticed that pupils who activated in ensembles and music bands within or
outside the school (church, clubs...) had singing dexterities already formed (to a greater or lesser extent), as well as
the intonational and expressive operation ability with the musical language elements specific of the approached
repertory. Within vocational education, the most frequent cases of hearing and intonation dysfunctions are caused by
inhibition (3%), timidity (9%), temperament structure (7%), attention (4%) and the voice mutation phenomenon in
boys (5%).
I encountered a particular situation amongst the pupils of the Popular Art School, mostly teenagers, in the most
sensitive manifestation period of their interest towards the concept of personal and artistic beauty. The most frequent
cases of musical dysfunctionality were manifest by the existence of a vigorous, sometimes impressive vocal tonus,
but without being able to integrate it to a tonal centre – the melodic line was in a continuous modulation (Sachs, O.,
2009). Another aspect is related to the singer’s sequential memory, who, starting from a known musical theme,
continues the melody in its succession with thematic motifs from other works, also changing the tonal centres at the
same time. Interesting to note was the fact that the approached fragments were part of the performer’s memory
stock, but without him being able to integrate them to the initial melody type; it was all an enchainment of melodic
motifs from different works, performed on the most bizarre tonal centres. The most obvious examples is that of
Tansanu Mirel.

3. Methods of recovery for singing out of tune

The singing / music teacher’s complex activity for recovering and improving intonation, hearing and rhythm
dysfunctions envisages both the approach of the most adequate singing techniques for each individual case, and
particularly the psychological side of an active communication between teacher and pupil.
Training of the vocal-auditory abilities implies giving up on a priori labelling of children that do not meet the
expected requirements, as being tone deaf, and considering this stage as a development stage. The labelling of pupils
by the educational structures can have strong social and psychological effect on the child, and neglecting or ignoring
this factor can deprive the child from his musical-cultural development, leaving him at the will of hazard or leaving
him to assimilate harmful patterns.
The communicative atmosphere from the educational environment, based on truthfulness and mutual trust,
eliminates conflicts and counter-balances negative emotions, ensuring the inner equilibrium and self-restraint. A
delicate smile and a positive attitude are ways by which openness is created for personal and collective expression.
The methods used to correct out of tune singing pursue the improvement of sound production, of perception and
memory starting from the group approach to the individual approach. When selecting the practical exercises of
recovery one must take into account the fact that musical learning is achieved in an auditory, visual, kinaesthetic or
mixed manner (Daniélou, A., 1978). When correcting intonation errors, individual performance is to be preferred in
 Ioan Oarcea / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 187 (2015) 464 – 469 467

younger children, as it ensures individual focusing which gives them the chance to correct themselves, whereas
collective interpretation is more efficient in the case of older children.
A work session may comprise, in its progressive succession, the following sequences in a temporal development
that differs from one individual to another, from one group to another and from one study level to another:
x exercises for physical training and breathing – for preparing the body and rendering it more flexible;
x exercises for diction – expressive recitation of texts from the pupils’ lectures or the songs studied;
x exercises for vocal training – in a light manner of sound emission through correct voice impostation.
According to the group’s structure and the goals pursued, the work techniques are different from those at the
choir ensemble classes. The scholastic manner is replaced with a ludic one, where the teacher chooses the type of
exercises as to their technique and difficulty level, adapting them to each individual or work group.
Here are some approach and work techniques used, described in detail:
Sung speaking, which evidences the specific sound of the mother tongue, can represent the first stage of musical
education. It can be continued later, progressively, with musical examples from children’s folklore, with a limited
ambitus of intonation, with a simple but trained melody.
At high school groups, rhythmic and melodic fragments from the entertainment repertory (folk, light music and
jazz) of well-known performers can be used. At this time, the proposals can also come from the pupils.
Staccato singing is one of the efficient methods in the case of children with intonation difficulties, since it implies
the training of the body and diaphragm, and by the approach method, it provides the passage from sung speaking to
singing per se.
Interpretation of sounds with increased difficulty is easier to achieve within rhythmical-melodic motives, rather
than individually, as the musical texture – that is, the intelligent manner of combining distances of various
dimensions within rhythmical-melodic formulas – represents an important factor in the accurate interpretation of
intonation. Sometimes, difficult rhythmic and melodic fragments are encountered even in the repertory proposed by
the participants.
Engaging the performers in a form of sung dialogue offers surprising observations regarding the creative manner
of structuring the configuration of the melody, sometimes of great difficulty. The interpersonal musical dialogue
implies a psychological involvement, of attitude of the individual within the collective.
As complementary methodology suggestions regarding the development of auditory acuity, as well as the
increase of the ability to emit and perceive sounds and melodies within the vocal development, one can employ:
body movements, use of rhythm instruments or use of hand signals, drafts, diagrams and melody contours.
For the development of musical sense, of sound emission and memory, the child must be continuously subject to
singing experiences as varied as possible: echo singing, onomatopoeia singing, in staccato or legato, on mute sound
– by causing the vibration of the facial resonators.
Unfolding the activity’s moments can be supported by rhythmic (bells, small drums, triangle, etc...) or rhythmic
and melodic accompaniment (piano, guitar,...). The rhythmic and melodic background of the accompaniment has a
multiple role; to train, conduct as well as correct, because while the work session moments are unfolding there is
permanent, unconscious relating of the participants to the model the accompaniment background proposes – leading
to correct intonational and rhythmic memorising of the models learned. At an advanced work stage, the
accompaniment may even be supported by the pupils – groupwise or individually.
The progressive elimination or attenuation of the psychical (inhibition, timidity, fear) or temperamental
disturbing factors (hyperactivity, hypotonia or passivity) can be achieved through breathing exercises for psychical
detensioning and relaxation (Lamboley, D., 2001).
Another method is the individual’s active integration and objective valorisation within the group by involving
him in cultural projects and programmes where he can manifest his artistic and human potential.
Improvisation may constitute another moment of the workshop. The moment must be chosen carefully by the
teacher, when he notices in the participants’ gestures and experiences manifestations of personal creativity, when
they externalise their feelings in an artistic manner – musically, verbally or bodily.
The individual, soloist evolution may constitute a peak moment of the activity, which crowns an obvious
progress.
Very important in the working sessions is to obtain a state of inner unleashing/relaxation; starting from this
moment, the teacher can intervene, model and progressively correct the intonation, rhythm and memory
468 Ioan Oarcea / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 187 (2015) 464 – 469

dysfunctions he has noticed, with intelligence and patience, to a smaller or greater extent. The entire arsenal of
methods and procedures used – physical training and breathing exercises, intonation exercises, vocalises, diction and
singing techniques, verbal language, the demonstrative vocal pattern – are conditioned by the empathic dialogue
between teacher and pupils.

4. Conclusion – result assessment, reward and appreciation

The continuous assessment of the activities of development and/or recovery of the musical voice and hearing is
very important in order to induce a feeling of trust and personal motivation of the pupils. Appreciation must be
objective, expressed in a positive, tonic form, in order to be efficient in correcting erroneous interpretations. If the
pupils only encounter failures in interpretation, then the musical examples selected and the exercises/studies
performed were not adequate. Each moment of the pupil’s or pupil group’s evolution must be completed through a
corrective or approving attitude related to the manner they reacted to the teacher’s guiding.
In most educational processes for remedying dysfunctions in hearing, intonation and rhythm, the periodic and
final evaluation stressed that, as a consequence of the activities undertaken, there is obvious progress in the pupil’s
attitude and ability to operate with musical language. Evolution and progress are individual traits; at some, they are
obvious and are manifested instantaneously, at others they are noticed later. The momentary reaction and impression
are not defining, as they can be superficial, mimetic.
Compared to the indicators of the graph above, through a positive, open and active attitude of the teacher, the
pupils succeeded in improving their dysfunctions determined by inhibition, timidity, fear and temperament structure.
By activating the inner resources, the ability to memorise, attention and concentration were improved, and by
consciously applying singing techniques, the quality of breathing and impostation was improved (Lamboley, D.,
2001). The lack of musical educationin the family was also compensated by involving the pupils in cultural activities
of the school community. As for genetic, innate, neurological and mental anomalies, the results were minimal, but
they can be attenuated much more easily during teenage and maturity (Daniélou, A., 1978).
This is how the percentage graph of the progress noticed in remedying the dysfunctions of hearing, intonation
and rhythm looks like, a year later, determined by the following factors: compensating the lack of musical education
in the family (40 %), inhibition, timidity, fear, temperament structure (30 %), attention, concentration, memorising
(25 %), breathing and impostation (20 %), genetic, innate, neurological and mental anomalies (5 %).
40% · compensating the lack of musical education in the family
30% · inhibition, timidity, fear, temperament structure
25%
20% · attention, concentration, memorising,
5% · breathing and impostation
· genetic, innate, neurological and mental anomalies

Fig. 2

A positive attitude in the family and a communicative atmosphere in the educational environment are decisive in
activating the individual’s inner musical readiness and recovering from hearing and intonation dysfunctions.
According to the seriousness of genetic, medical or psychological affections, the recovery of dysfunctions may
reach certain operational performances, determined by the pupil’s emotional intelligence and particularly by the
educator’s mastery. Being aware of the complexity and diversity of the causes of the auditory dysfunctions and of
the techniques of educational training, we consider that it is necessary to add to the university curriculum of future
trainers, music teachers, of a discipline which should cover both objective ways, individual and collective, of
educating the hearing and voice, and the recovery of non-singing children.
The ability to communicate through the musical language brings a positive attitude, psychological comfort and a
rich cultural horizon to the individual.
 Ioan Oarcea / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 187 (2015) 464 – 469 469

References:

Cegolea, G. (1995). Vox mentis. (2rd ed.). Bucureúti: Editura Europa Nova & Editura Armonia.
Comiƕel, E. (1982). Folclorul copiilor. Bucureúti: Editura Muzicală.
Cosmovici, A., & Iacob, L. (1999). Psihologie úcolară. Iaƕi: Editura Polirom.
Daniélou, A. (1978). Sémantique musicale. (2rd ed.). Paris: Hermann.
Doron, R., & Parot, F. (2006). DicƜionar de Psihologie. Bucureƕti: Editura Humanitas.
Lamboley, D. (2001). Respiră corect úi vei fi săQătos. (2rd ed.). Bucureúti, Editura Teora.
Nattiez, J. J. (1975). Fondements d’une sémiologie de la musique. Paris: Union Générale d’Editions.
Oarcea, I. (2010). Cântarea corală. Cluj-Napoca: Editura MediaMusica.
Sachs, O. (2009). Muzicofilia. (2rd ed.). Bucureúti: Editura Humanitas.
 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 139 – 143

3rd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance (WCPCG-2012)

Effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies on Reading Skills of Students
with Hearing Disorders

Parisa Tajalli a *, Samaneh Satari b

a
.Faculty of psychology and social science, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
b
Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Historical research has documented the fact that the average student with a hearing disorders graduates from high school with
reading comprehension skills at about fourth grade Level. Metacognitive strategies are one of the methods that have significant
applications in educational issues, especially in reading. The main purpose of this research was identifying the effectivenes s of
metacognitive strategies for improvement of reading skills of students with hearing disorders. Research design was pretest-
posttest randomized group. The sample was formed from 10 students with hearing disorders, 9-10 years old whom were matched
and assigned randomly to experimental and control groups. For assessing reading skills, kiyadarbandsari (2007) reading test was
administered. Students of experimental group participated in an intervention program for 8 sessions (each session 45 minutes) .
The T - student test was used to analyze data. Results indicate metacognitive strategies training were useful for improving
reading skills of students with hearing disorders.

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection
© and peer-review
2013 Published under responsibility
by Elsevier of Prof. and
Ltd. Selection Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu
peer review & Dr.
under theMukaddes Demirok,ofNear
responsibility Dr.East University,
Melehat Halat Cyprus
Keywords: reading skills, students with hearing disorders, metacognitive strategies

1. Introduction

Deficiency of defect of any sense brings to physical human functions coordination disorder, retards the dynamic
of orderly development or reorganize it in undesirable direction, it depends on which sense is damaged, impaired
degree or ethology which provoked it. But, the most complexes consequence in personality development begins
with eyesight disorder and specially sense of hearing. Sense of hearing, beside the primary function which consists
in receiving and registration of sound does many other associative functions important for speech development
(Kovavevic, Slavonic; 2010).
Hearing impairment is a generic term referring to all types, causes, and degrees of hearing loss. To delineate the
impact of a hearing loss on the development of English speech, Language, and literacy, a number of descriptive
variables have been identified, including degree of hearing impairment; age at onset; age at identification; ethology;
presence of additional disabilities; and hearing status, level of involvement, communication mode, socioeconomic
status of the parents or caregivers (Paul, Whitelaw, 2011).

Corresponding author name:*Parisa Tajalli,Tel:+98-1912-3473666

Par.Tajalli@iauctb.ac.ir

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu & Dr. Mukaddes Demirok, Near East University, Cyprus
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.524
140 Parisa Tajalli and Samaneh Satari / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 139 – 143

It is not a secret that the majority of children who are deaf have poor reading skills. Traxler (2000) states that
the average 17 year- old deaf high school student reads on a 4th grade level. Children who are deaf miss out on a
world full of language and sounds because of their hearing loss. Clearly, there are many factors that negatively
influence successful reading acquisition for children who are deaf (Emerson, 2010).
Given the importance of reading and the pleasure that reading brings to individuals, learning to read should be a
joyful and successful undertaking (Holdaway, 1979). Regrettably, this has not been the case for most individuals
who are deaf or hard of hearing. While many students who are deaf or hard of hearing become skilled readers,
throughout history research has documented the fact that the majority of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing
complete their education without being able to read well (e.g., Myklebust, 1960; Pintner & Patterson, 1916). Recent
national research (e.g., Allen, 1986; Center for Assessment and Demographic Studies, 1991; Holt, Traxler, & Allen,
1997; Karchmer & Mitchell, 2003) indicated that the average students with a hearing loss graduates from high
school with reading comprehension skills at about the fourth- grade level. Approximately 20% (some 2.000
annually) leave school with a reading level at or below second grade (Dew, 1999). It is very likely that the lack of
literacy skill development is one of the primary factors behind the need for 49.562 individuals who were deaf or
hard of hearing to collect social security disability benefits in 2004 (Social security administration, 2006), a situation
that in turn may negatively affect the quality of these individuals lives (Blocher, Heppner, & Johnston, 2001;
Luckner, Handley, 2008).
Providing a definition or description of reading that would be widely accepted is an impossible- well,
formidable- task. In fact, debates on this endeavour have been occurring for over 150 years (Bartine, 1989, 1992).
At best, we can state that reading is a complex entity that involves language, cognitive, and effective factors (Paul,
Whitelaw, 2011).
Being able to read is more important than ever. It is essential for achieving in school, being an informed citizen.
Succeeding in one's career, and experiencing personal fulfillment. It has also been reported that individuals who read
a lot tend to be smarter than their peers who do not read much; and that individuals who read well are healthier than
those with low reading ability (Luckner, Handley, 2008).
Reading is a fundamental skill to acquire information. Children and adults who have limited reading ability
encounter difficulties in many areas of their life. To enhance reading ability effectively, it is quite significant to
understand the reading process. Reading is not only between reader and text. Instead, as Rubin (1982) stated,
reading is a more complex activity that includes different skills. According to Rubin, reading is "the bringing of
meaning to and the getting of meaning from the printed page" .This definition shows that the experiences, sensations
and backgrounds are brought into reading by the readers. Studies which inquire steps of reading indicate that reading
is considerably complicated (Palinsear & Brown, 1984) and it is directly related to cognitive structures and even
beyond the cognitive structures (Israel, Block, Bauserman & Welseh). Because reading is related to beyond the
cognitive structures, metacognitive structures can explain reading process more properly. According to Larkin,
(2009) metacognition has the most impact to teach reading to children (Temur et al, 2010).
Metacognition has been explored in a wide range of areas and positive effects of developing metacognitive
awareness have been reported across most academic subjects, in health related areas, in social relationships, in law
and other social science fields, and in all age groups. Metacognition is linked to big questions around intelligence
consciousness and emotions. A great deal of theoretical work has delineated and described the different components
of metacognition, how they work together, and their effect on cognitive processes. From its initial conceptualization,
metacognition was seen as incorporating declarative knowledge, referred to as metacognitive knowledge, and
procedural knowledge aimed at monitoring and controlling thinking. Procedural metacognition has also been
referred to as metacognitive skills. Many other terms are used to refer to different kinds of metacognitive processes,
so we might refer to meta-strategic knowledge to indicate knowledge about strategies and ability to select the most
appropriate strategy (Larkin, 2010).
Metacognition has three functions; awareness, evaluation and regulation. Metacognitive awareness includes
knowledge of mental processes. Metacognitive awareness also refers to total knowledge of obtaining skills which
continuously advance. Metacognitive evaluation implies and individual's thinking procedures, deficiencies and
 Parisa Tajalli and Samaneh Satari / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 139 – 143 141

capabilities. When individuals use their metacognitive skills directly for their knowledge and thinking, strategies,
including how and why they use particular strategies) and executive skills (such as planning, self-correcting, setting
goals) to use their cognitive roots most properly (Nousha, 2008). According to Borkowski, (1992) in order to
choose an appropriate and feasible approach to problem solving. Students need to be instructed on how to develop
self- regulation skill which enables them to analyze and size up their tasks. Students who are able to use self-
regulation are expected to monitor their learning (Temur et al, 2010).
Some of the first studies of metacognition in practice involved reading. The reciprocal reading programme of
Palinscar and Brown (1984) involved teachers modelling the key principles of reviewing or summarizing,
questioning, clarifying and predicting in order to aid comprehension of a text. Teachers and students took it in turn
to lead dialogues and teachers gave support and gradually gave way to the students as they become more confident.
This method viewed reading as a constructive process which involves monitoring and self-questioning, as well as
control of cognitive processing. Reciprocal teaching is about making explicit the strategies and skills that competent
readers use when they are reading, so that students become aware of reading as a process. The programme was
based on Vygotskyan ideas of the social construction of learning and the zone of proximal development. Palinscar
and Brown argued that through "Guided practice", i. e. the support of another more advanced reader, students would
benefit from the modelling of reading strategies by the more expert reader and be helped to use these strategies
themselves. Reciprocal Teaching was particularly aimed at readers who could already decode but had problems with
comprehension (Larkin, 2010).
Self- Monitoring which means what learners do when they use metacognitive skills is a branch of regulation.
Good readers monitor their reading behaviour and understanding continually, poor readers have a little idea of how
to improve their comprehension. Therefore, they are not able to change their strategies if they face more difficult
texts (Forrest, Pressley & Waller, 1984). Long and Long (1987) substantiated these findings in their study by
comparing the behaviours of more and less successful college reader. More successful readers try to understand
events and their relationship with each other, so they know and understand what they have read. While poor readers
tend to focus on some details during the reading process, so they miss the meaning of the whole text (Gourgey,
1998; Temur et al, 2010).
Research on poor readers has shown that children who have difficulty with decoding also demonstrate poor self-
monitoring and control skills (Armbruster & Brown, 1984). Other studies have suggested that these difficulties are
compounded by a lack of knowledge of reading strategies, and inability to select strategies and an inability to
monitor strategy use. Le Fevre and colleagues have also argued that poor readers are often given inappropriate texts
for their age and the reliance on simplistic texts for poor readers does nothing to improve knowledge and use of
metacognitive strategies (Le Fevre et al., 2003). This has and obvious effect on motivation. It is very difficult to
motivate yourself to persist with an area of learning with which you are already struggling if the materials you are
being presented with are also uninteresting (Larkin, 2010).
Since the 1980s a good deal of research on Reciprocal Teaching has shown that readers do benefit from being
explicitly taught the cognitive and metacognitive strategies outlined by Palinscar and Brwon. An overview of 16
studies using Reciprocal Teaching concluded that this method of teaching had a significant positive effect on
reading comprehension (Roseshine, Meister, 1994, Larkin, 2010).
There are many studies about metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies. Yin and Agnes (2001)
purposed to examine the metacognitive knowledge and use of metacognitive strategies by good and poor readers of
the English Language in Singapore. In the study, the students were from 9th and 11th grade levels. Also they were
selected from two different courses. At the end of the study; Yin and Agens found that good readers scored
significantly higher than the poor readers on the reading comprehension test.Good readers selected more strategic
responses than the poor readers. Thus, the good readers displayed better awareness and knowledge of metacognition.
According to the study, although they found some significant differences between same grade's poor and good
readers, they couldn't find any statistically significant difference between 9th and 11th grade students (Temur et al
201
142 Parisa Tajalli and Samaneh Satari / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 84 (2013) 139 – 143

2. Method

2.1 Sample
The sample was formed from 10 students with hearing disorders, 9-10 years old whom were matched and
assigned randomly to experimental and control groups.

2.2 Aim
The main purpose of this research was examine the influence of combination two methods self- instruction and
reciprocal teaching on reading skill of students with hearing disorders.

2.3 Measure
The kiadarbandsari Reading Test (2007) was used to assess reading skills while reading academic or school-
related materials. It included two short stories which each one has five questions.

2.4 Procedures
The study was carried out during the second semester of 2010 in one of the elementary schools of students with
hearing disorders in Tehran. Since the research design was pretest-posttest randomized group; at the beginning of
the study, both groups answered to the reading skills (pre-test). Then, the programme of teaching metacognitive
strategies was administered only to an experimental group (8 sessions, each one 45 minutes). At the end of the study
both groups answered in the reading skills test (post-test).

2.5 Data analysis

The T - student test was used for assessing the improvement of students' reading skill.

Table 1. T-test comparison of Experimental and control Groups

Experimental Groups Control Groups T df sig
Mean SD Mean SD

-2.5 2.12 -0.4 1.42 2.5 8 0.05

3. Results

According to findings in table 1, experimental Group (M=-2/5, SD=2/12) reported significantly higher reading
skills than control Group (M=-0/4, SD= 1/42), t(8)=2/5, P>0/05.It means there was a significant difference between
experimental and control Groups in terms of reading skills; after the administration of the metacognition
programme.

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of learning metacognition strategies; Self-monitoring and
Reciprocal teaching to improve reading skills of students with hearing disorders. Due to weakness of students with
hearing disorders in reading (Traxler, 2000; Emerson, 2010; MyKlebust, 1960; Dew, 1999), and effectiveness of
metacognitive strategies for improving reading skills (Larkin, 2010;; Temur, 2010; Yin&Agnes, 2001; Meister,
1994) teaching metacognitive strategies to students with hearing disorders in elementary schools will be useful.

References

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