Award Date

1-1-2000

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Special Education

First Committee Member

Susan P. Miller

Number of Pages

118

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the efficacy of using comics to teach the multiple meanings of words to students with language and learning disabilities. Three research hypotheses were tested: (1) there will be a statistically significant difference in learning multiple meanings of words between subjects who received instruction with comics and subjects who received instruction without comics; (2) there will be a statistically significant increase in the subjects' perceived abilities to learn and remember words with multiple meanings after instruction using comics; and (3) there will be a statistically significant change in the subjects' interest in reading after instruction using comics. Twenty-three subjects (17 male, six female), aged 8.1 to 10.9 participated in the study. Subjects were assigned randomly to an experimental and control group. Subjects in the experimental group were taught multiple meanings of ten words using comics. Subjects in the control group were taught the same words without using comics. A Multiple Meanings Task was administered before and after treatment to assess subjects' abilities to define words that had more than one meaning. A Subject Questionnaire was administered before and after treatment to (1) assess subjects' perceptions about their abilities to define and learn words with multiple meanings and (2) assess their interest in reading; An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicated a statistically significant difference between experimental and control subjects' abilities to define words with multiple meanings at the p < .05 level. Subjects in the experimental group performed significantly better than the subjects in the control group after the treatment. A paired two-tailed t-test indicated there were no within subject differences in perceived abilities to define and learn words at the p < .05 level for either experimental or control subjects. A paired two-tailed t-test indicated there were no within subject differences in perceived interest in reading at the p < .05 level for either experimental or control subjects. Therefore, hypothesis one was accepted and hypotheses two and three were rejected; The conclusion drawn from this study was that using comics to teach multiple meanings of words is a potentially beneficial intervention for elementary students with language and learning disabilities.

Keywords

Comics; Humor; Learning Disabilities; Meanings; Multiple; Teach; Vocabulary Instructions; Words

Controlled Subject

Speech therapy; Language arts; Education, Elementary

File Format

pdf

File Size

2723.84 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

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