ELECTRONIC SIGNING STORYBOOK (CODREAD) FOR DEAF STUDENTS

It was well documented that deaf children are often delayed in language development compared to their hearing counterparts. The delay unfortunately hampered the cognitive development and affected the learning process among deafstudents. Realizing the importance of grasping basic language skills among deaf children, this paper reports on an ongoing development of electronic signing storybook; a CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) prototype aimed at enhancing the deaf students language and literacy skills, specifically vocabulary learning. This paper is segmented into two sections; a theoretical framework that guided the project and preliminary research of the study and findings from preliminary needs analysis research. Learning theories which involved Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and the ARCS model are reviewed along with the Dialogic Reading method to conclusively form a theoretical framework for this study. Since the study is still in the initial stage, preliminary research is carried out qualitatively, including the interviews with respondents. It is concluded that both learning theories provided broad potential for student- centred learning process and are capable of expanding the language capacity of the students. Preliminary study showed deaf students levels and approaches to reading and writing are different from that of their normal counterparts; thus more deaf-friendly CALL is needed in Malaysia. Several assistive technology adaptations with regard to the needs of deaf students in planning the CALL prototype are deliberately discussed for future researchers and practitioners.