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Running Head: COMPREHENSION AND MULTIMODAL METHODS 1

Promoting Comprehension through Multimodal Methods

Cheryl J. Myers

Franciscan University of Steubenville

COMPREHENSION AND MULTIMODAL METHODS 2

Introduction

Comprehension is vital to any reading program. Learning how to decode words, gaining

greater accuracy, and improving fluency are important aspects of reading. However, having the

ability to understand the message the author is trying to convey is most critical. It is both a

teacher's privilege and responsibility to help students extract information from the text and

construct new knowledge using that information. In addition, it is important for teachers to help

students use their schema, or prior knowledge, to help gain new knowledge from the text. This

all builds comprehension. If it seems like a great deal of work, it is. There are many different

reading strategies available to aid in teaching comprehension. Though there are many methods

available, is there any one strategy that works best? That is the question to which I wanted an

answer.

Purpose

When discussing reading strategies and the importance of literacy in students, one of the

most used words in a teacher's vocabulary is "comprehension". It is not enough that a student is

able to pronounce words correctly. It is not enough that a student is fluent and reading at his or

her independent, age-appropriate levels. If this student does not understand what he or she reads,

this student will not be able to make the necessary connections and apply schema, or background

knowledge, thus making it impossible for him or her to be as literate as possible. This idea of

improving comprehension and the best method to use in doing so is the focus of this study. Does

the method used in communicating stories to students affect the level of their comprehension of

those stories? In other words, is it better to read a story aloud, to have a student read silently, or

to combine the two methods together?


I will be going into reading classes at John Gregg Elementary School. There are five

classes total, two classes of fifth-graders, and three classes of sixth-graders. One class will be

read aloud the book "My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother" by Patricia Polacco; reading only, no

pictures, no explanations. Another class will be given a copy of the text only. They will be

instructed to read the story silently. Finally, the last three classes, one sixth-grade class and both

fifth-grade classes will be shown a presentation using the class's Smart Board technology. They

will have a copy of the text in front of them as well as a video reading of the story, complete with

illustrations. Following the reading, all classes will be given a comprehension test about the

story.

My hypothesis is that there will be a much higher comprehension grade in the classes

using visual and auditory methods simultaneously, the Smart Board technology. After reading

the research done by others in this field, I predict the use of multiple methods will engage the

reader and enable a deeper understanding of the text.

Review of Literature

Given that bimodal presentation (using both visual and auditory approaches at the same

time) speeds up comprehension and memory, one method for doing this is the topic of the

Montali and Lewandowski (1996) article. Since pedagogical learning most often occurs through

reading, those with lower reading levels often miss learning the material due to their reading

skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to observe the differences in comprehension of

students taught using visual only methods, auditory only methods, and bimodal methods. The

researchers chose 18 average readers and 18 less skilled readers from grades eight and nine.

They presented the students with science and social studies lessons on a computer in three ways:

visually on the screen, read by a digital voice, and simultaneously visual and voiced. To examine


the level of comprehension, each student answered ten questions orally about the selections

taught. Results showed overall, the less skilled readers performed better on the comprehension

questions following the bimodal method than either of the other one-mode methods suggesting a

correlation between comprehension and the bimodal method. In addition, the less skilled readers'

understanding using the bimodal method was comparable to the average readers who used the

visual only method. Finally, when asked their opinion, students who were less skilled readers

indicated they were more satisfied with and felt more successful using the bimodal method.

The researchers of this project were quite meticulous in their experimentations. In this

article, they include several tables with figures to support their findings. However, the usage of a

moderately sized group of students, 36 in all, does not give an extensive view on a variety of

students. Moreover, using this method in additional content areas would be helpful. To improve

on this study, there could be questions regarding language arts, mathematics, and perhaps even a

second language. In addition, observing the results of a group of students younger than the

selected grades eight and nine, for example grades five and six, would be most interesting and

extremely helpful. It is imperative to help students with comprehension and memory issues long

before reaching grades eight and nine. The methods the researchers used will be tremendously

helpful as I study the effects of bimodal methods in grades five and six.

Multimodal learning environments is the focus of a study involving two projects executed

and analyzed in an article by Maureen Walsh (2008). Through classroom research, this study

examines the ever-changing world of multimodal literacy, a literacy that aids in reading

comprehension, problem-solving, and digital content. The purpose of this study is to observe and

record students' connectivity to the multimodal literacy tasks used to aid in the reading, writing,

talking, and listening processes. For this study, nine teachers volunteered to allow their


classrooms to incorporate the multimodal and digital texts into their curriculum. Researchers

collected and analyzed the data. In the end, Walsh (2008) specifically wanted to answer the

following two research questions: "What are the literacy strategies that students need for reading,

using, and producing multimodal texts?" (p. 102) and "What is the relevant and explicit

pedagogy appropriate for integrating multimodal literacies with conventional literacy practices?"

(p. 102). She determined two projects in particular would be the focus. For the first project, a

teacher of eight year olds gave the assignment to his students to work in pairs and produce an

eight-minute podcast. In the podcast, students were to research, plan, develop, write, edit,

produce, and refine both audio and video files. Each podcast was to contain an introduction, an

informational report on the Australian spider, a narrative, and a conclusion. Observations showed

students were quite conscious of their enunciation and word choice. The students were highly

engaged in their activities, particularly boys who were otherwise less engaged in their usual

classroom learning. In the second project, two teachers collaborated to create a cross-age

endeavor. They combined students ages six and nine in a fairytale-themed extensive class, two

hours every day for three weeks. Teachers shared traditional and alternative fairy tale stories

with the students. Then, using a multitude of aspects as resources, such as cooking, drama, art,

technology, digital photography, PowerPoint, video, writing, and animation, students were

instructed to create and record their own interpretations of these fairy tales. In this project, even

more so than the first, teachers and students needed to interact and collaborate to reach their

desired results. Teachers saw indications of many ways in which students were making

transitions within traditional aspects of reading and writing using visual and digital mediums.

Teachers and students from both projects demonstrated the amazing potential for literacy and

literacy projects in the coming years.


The study of these two separate projects yielded comparable results. At each teacher's

discretion, he or she was able to come up with a project the teacher believed would best highlight

multimodal methods. It involved using a variety of creative mediums and innovative thinking.

The only disadvantages to a study like this are the availability of certain technologies in certain

areas and schools. However, teachers can use resources that are available to them to do similar

projects, though perhaps on a smaller scale. In my study, the plan is to use a multitude of

resources available to see how to help students comprehend and remember a particular section of

learning, perhaps involving similar resources. In order to improve on this study, more aspects

and more resources should be made available to schools as technology continues to advance.

A correlational study examining relationships between auditory and visual perception as

well as comprehension was the subject for an article out of Pittsburgh University by Weaver and

Rosner (1975). The purpose of the study was to see if there was any link between visual

perception and auditory perception. In addition, the researchers desired to see the level of

comprehension when individuals were given both the visual and the auditory stimuli, as opposed

to receiving either one or the other. The subjects of this particular study were 25 students from a

non-graded school for children with learning disabilities located in Pittsburgh, PA. Identified

were students between the ages of nine and thirteen who were reading between a first grade and

a third to fourth grade level. Five different tests were administered and compared. There were

two perceptual tests, one being visual, and one being auditory, a combined listening-reading

comprehension test, a word recognition test, and the Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) test,

which measures visual perceptual skills. The data showed significant correlation between certain

visual perception skills and listening comprehension. Responses to the reading comprehension

tests were attributed to the thought that the students chosen for this study had poor decoding


skills. However, they believe decoding skills were not as necessary for the listening

comprehension tests, therefore explaining why they scored better in that area.

Though this study was performed nearly 40 years ago, it is not without merit. Studies

have shown throughout the years of a correlation between auditory and visual learning and the

benefits of combining the two. The article was well written, and the researchers provided many

different tables and findings of their investigations. They used a large number of students in the

study. That being said, though there were a large number of students in the study, using a more

diverse group of students may have been helpful. In addition, there were times when the wording

was a bit confusing. This study does support my proposal that there is a correlation between

using multiple sensory methods instead of only one single method. Though the methodologies

will be different in my study, the findings are expected to be similar. Using today's technology,

as opposed to what was available in 1975, would only improve upon this study. There are many

ways to connect the auditory with the visual on a computer screen. The Internet should greatly

benefit a study such as this.

The modality learning effect refers to the method used in presenting information to

students, and this is the focus of a study performed in the Netherlands by Witterman and Segers

(2010). These researchers wanted to measure the modality effect in young children and to see

how long this effect lasted, discovering whether or not the effect would hold after longer periods.

The participants used in this study were 80 students in grade six, 35 girls, and 45 boys. These

students attended a public elementary school in the Netherlands. The study took place during

regular classroom hours. The students were either shown a series of 16 pictures with one or two

lines of text underneath the pictures (reading condition) or the students were given headphones

and an audio link to listen to the same information (listening condition). For the testing, students


were presented with certain retention, transfer, and comprehension questions. All students,

regardless of the mode of how the information was presented, were shown questions on a

computer and then asked to type out their answers. Three testing situations were then performed.

One test immediately followed the giving of the information, another test was given one day

after the presentation, and a third test was given one week after that. The researchers’ findings

indicate students who were presented with the information visually performed better on the

initial tests. The scores to the retention questions over time became quite similar for both modes

of presentations. However, those who were presented with the information visually had better

test scores, even over a one-week period.

This article is quite relevant to my upcoming research in that it is actually testing young

students rather than undergraduate students. The researchers did a fair job in presenting the

questions to the students in their study. However, I believe they could have taken it just a bit

further. In their study, they provided students with one of two presentation methods, either visual

or auditory. For my study, I, too, want to see the results of the auditory and the visual separately.

However, I believe it is also important to give a third option, the combined audiovisual method.

In addition to adding this third presentation element, I believe this study could be improved in

the future by giving a variety of testing options. This study required all students to type out

answers on the computer after reading them on the computer. It would be interesting to see if

there would be a difference in performance depending on how the questions were presented,

perhaps adding the option of students being orally tested.

Methodology

For my research, I decided there was no better place to observe a student's level of

comprehension than the classroom. In prior years, I have had the privilege of working with one


particular reading teacher. Every day, she teaches five reading classes, two classes of fifth-grade

students and three classes of sixth-grade students. She has been gracious enough to allow me

access to her students. On Friday, October 31, 2014, under her supervision, I went into her

classroom and ran my study on all five classes of students. There were 103 students tested.

Students ranged in age from 10 to 13. Students were asked to indicate on their test papers

whether they were male or female. However, many students did not do this. Nonetheless, my

observance of the classes showed a fairly equal distribution between the sexes of the students.

The study includes the book "My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother" by Patricia Polacco.

One class experienced the story by me reading the text aloud to the class. There was no display

of pictures and no further explanations of any kind. A second class was given a copy of text only,

typed out on plain paper. Students were instructed to read the story silently. It should be noted

that prior to handing out the comprehension test, the copies of the text read were collected.

Finally, the last three classes, one sixth-grade class and both fifth-grade classes were shown a

presentation using the class's Smart Board technology. They, too, were given a copy of the text

on paper. However, they were also shown a video with the illustrations from the book displayed

as well as a voice reading the story. Again, it should be noted that prior to handing out the

comprehension test, the copies of the text were collected. Following all the reading, regardless of

the method, all classes were given identical comprehension tests about the story.

The school has each reading class grouped according to reading ability. The two fifth-

grade classes are very close in reading levels; there is not enough difference to warrant two

separate reading comprehension methods. Therefore, I tested both fifth-grade classes using the

same methodology. However, the three sixth-grade classes show a more diverse range of reading

ability. In one class, the students are all reading at a higher reading level than is typical for this


grade. In another class, the students are reading at the expected grade level. In the final class,

students are reading below the expected reading level for this age.

The study was very simple. For the class of sixth-grade students reading above their

expected reading level, I chose to have them read the text silently. For the class of sixth-grade

students reading at the expected reading level, they were the class to whom I read the text aloud.

For the class of sixth-grade students reading below grade level and for the two fifth-grade

classes, I chose to show them the presentation using both the visual and auditory cues.

Following the readings, no matter the method chosen, each student received a test with

seven comprehension questions. These were open-ended questions, requiring students to recall

certain specifics from the story. Moreover, since retelling is one of the best ways to check for

understanding, the test included a chance for the students to retell the story in their own words.

The literature reviews most beneficial to and supportive of my research were those

showing the direct correlation between using audio and visual stimuli and learning. There were

those studies observing evidence of understanding using either visual or audio cues. These were

beneficial, as well. However, I took it a step further. I wanted to see the further indication of

learning using the combined method of audio and visual simultaneously.

Findings

For this study, I expected to see higher comprehension scores for those students who

were given the stories using the multimodal method, both audio and visual simultaneously.

Studies have shown the correlation. I predicted there to be a substantial increase in understanding

using this method. However, these were not exactly my findings.

My findings actually showed the sixth-grade class of students who read silently, using

only the visual method, had the best test scores, showing the deeper understanding of the story.


As a whole, they scored higher on the questions and did a much better job retelling the story in

their own words. In addition, the scores of the sixth-grade class who were read the story aloud

had only a slight decrease in performance from that of the higher performing class of sixth-grade

students. However, in that class, no student was able to retell the story satisfactorily.

What I do find interesting is the last results, those results of both fifth-grade classes and

the sixth-grade class who is currently reading below grade level. The scores of these classes

indicate that by using multimodal method, the fifth-grade class of students was able to outscore

the sixth-grade class of students who are reading below grade level. Not only were their test

scores higher, they also had more students retelling the story to my satisfaction, demonstrating a

deeper comprehension of the story.

Below are the actual test scores of the students. The highest possible score was 5.0.

Additionally, I looked at the question for retelling ability and made additional notes.

For the two fifth-grade classes, 41 students, the mean score was 3.3, the median score

was 3.5, and the mode was 4.0.


For the sixth-grade class, 21 students, who are reading below expected reading level, and

who experienced the multimodal method, combining audio and visual cues, the mean score was

3.0, the median score was 3.0, and the mode was 3.0 and 3.5.

For the sixth-grade class, 22 students, who are reading at expected reading level, and who

experienced the auditory only method, the mean score was 3.9, the median score was 4.0, and the

mode was 4.0.


For the sixth-grade class, 19 students, who are reading above expected reading level, and

who experienced the visual only method, the mean score was 4.0, the median score was 4.0, and

the mode was 4.0.

Recommendations

My conclusions to the research I performed indicate there is a connection between the

method used to present the material and the amount of comprehension students obtain. While I

originally perceived this to be a drastic difference, and while, in my research, it has turned out to

be a minimal difference, I believe there to be a difference nonetheless. The success of the two

fifth-grade classes achieving higher grades than one of the sixth-grade classes cannot be ignored.

The classes who were given the story using the multimodal methods may not have scored the

highest of all the groups, but the fifth-grade class who is reading at grade level did make some

progress in closing the gap between the classes.

In reviewing the literature included with this study, I was able to acquire an accurate view

of the connection between combining audio and visual stimuli in order to deepen and improve


comprehension. These studies have shown correlation from as far back as 1975. This idea is

nothing new. However, given the technological advances we are enjoying now, we have far more

highly developed resources at our disposal. It appears the only limit to the research we do can is

the human imagination.

In retrospect, there are a few things I would change if faced with this study in the future.

First, I would divide single classes into sections. I would do this with the intention that within

each class there are some students reading silently, there are some students being read to aloud,

and there are some students experiencing the multimodal method. Due to the classes being

grouped by reading ability, I believe it would be a more accurate study and a way to study

comprehension within each ability level. Second, I would like to add yet another aspect to the

study. There are students who do not fare well on taking tests, whether for a grade or not. I

would be interested to see if there is a difference in student performance depending on how the

tests are presented. Therefore, I propose changing the method of the tests, as well. I believe that

if the tests were given orally, students' scores would increase. Finally, I would like to try this

study with no time constraints, or with more time available than this present study allowed. This

did turn into an issue in my research. There were students who simply ran out of time. As a

result, they were unable to complete the tests, thus affecting the outcome and results.


References

Botta, F., Raffone, A., Santangelo, V., Sanabria, D., Lupianez, J., & Belardinelli, M. (2011).

Multisensory integration affects visuo-spatial working memory. Journal of Experimental

Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37(4), 1099-1109.

Mitchel, A. D. &Weiss, D. J. (2011). Learning across senses: cross-modal effects in multisensory

statistical learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and

Cognition, 37(5), 1081-1091.

Montali, J. & Lewandowski, L. (1996). Bimodal reading: Benefits of a talking computer for

average and less skilled readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(3), 271-279.

Walsh, M. (2008). Worlds have collided and modes have merged: Classroom evidence of

changed literacy practices. Literacy, 42(2), 101-108.

Weaver, P. A. & Rosner, J. (1975). Relationships between visual and auditory perceptual skills

and comprehension independent of decoding. Learning Research and Development

Center at Pittsburgh University, PA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.

ED113679)

Witterman, M. J. & Segers, E. (2010). The modality effect tested in children in a user-paced

multimedia environment. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26, 132-142.

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mrscjmyers.weebly.com · Web viewGiven that bimodal presentation (using both visual and auditory approaches at the same time) speeds up comprehension and memory, one method for