Cooperative Conversations: The Effect of Cooperative Learning on Conversational Interaction

An ongoing challenge for educators of deaf and hard-of-hearing students is to find opportunities for students to use their language skills in a functional way, that is, through conversation. This study was initiated to determine whether cooperative learning is a viable means of encouraging mainstreamed hard-of-hearing students to engage in conversational interaction with their hearing peers and teachers. A single-subject design utilizing three mainstreamed hard-of-hearing subjects attending middle school was used to examine this question. Results of the study indicated that cooperative learning positively influenced the conversational turns, initiations, moves, and mean length of turn in these hard-of-hearing subjects.