1. To what extent are hypertext science materials with bilingual translational supports functional for ELL Spanish speaking adolescents with learning disabilities?
2. Does supported etext with English to-Spanish translations of content-specific vocabulary and content-specific sentences improve reading comprehension of science materials?

Update for 2009

This year's study took place in two Yonkers high schools: Roosevelt High School and Yonkers Middle High School. Both are large inner-city schools with high percentages of minority populations. All subjects in the study were resource room students with learning disabilities and also ESL/ELL learners who have Spanish as their first language. There were twelve subjects in total, three from Roosevelt and nine from Yonkers. A case-based design was used to explore the usability of bilingual translational and illustrative supports for this population.

A supported text hypertext document was created from very basic biology text. Text supports included translational supports in the form of content-specific vocabulary and content-specific sentences in both English and Spanish. Illustrative resources included pictures and simple diagrams placed appropriately next to the passages of the text. The text itself was chunked into short passages. Students used a text-to-speech reader, Read/Write/Gold by TextHelp with highlighting. Instructional support included a paper version of a simple vocabulary strategy instruction that was read to and read by the students, who were able to refer to it by the computer when needed. Each subject was administered the pretest- a paper and pencil fill-in-the blank quiz consisting of 20 questions, using each vocabulary word twice. Students practiced the navigation first, using the screen reader, and were exposed to the strategy instruction- in one session before actually having the treatment.

All students were engaged, read through the entire text, preferred using the text-to-speech (it was entirely optional), and liked the visual supports. The majority of the students read through the entire passage in a linear fashion, following the voice-over and highlighted text. Following their using the hypertext each subject was asked a series of questions and then administered the posttest. The majority of the subjects liked the hypertext format and would welcome using it for other reading materials, thought the subject matter was interesting, liked the visuals and thought the amount was sufficient. The majority thought there was no need for animation or more elaborate visuals. All results indicate so far that using these types of supported e-text is useful for this population to help them in content literacy, especially science where the concepts are difficult to grasp.