Effectiveness of Computer-assisted Vocabulary Instruction for Secondary Students with Mild Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Students with mild intellectual disabilities need explicit vocabulary instruction with multiple exposures in different contexts and extra practice in associating meanings to unfamiliar words to build their word knowledge. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of multimedia-based computer assisted instruction on learning the meanings of words compared to the identical instruction without computers. Forty, Year 7 to 10 students were explicitly taught vocabulary words either via computer-assisted or teacher-directed instruction. The story Charlotte’s Web was used as a context through a variety of evidenced-based instructional practices. The students’ pre and post tests were based ..