The purpose of this study was to determine whether the listening comprehension of learning disabled (LD) students was affected by structure applied to a listening task with the variable of locus of control held as a constant. The study was also designed to investigate whether there were differences in locus of control orientation between normal and LD students. The following hypotheses were tested: 1. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the learning disabled external locus of control group receiving the structured task and the learning disabled external locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 2. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the learning disabled internal locus of control group receiving the structured task and the learning disabled internal locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 3. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the normal external locus of control group receiving the structured task and the normal external locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 4. There will be no significant difference in listening comprehension between the normal internal locus of control group receiving the structured task and the normal internal locus of control group receiving the unstructured task. 5. There will be no significant difference in locus of control orientation between the total normal group and the total learning disabled group. The subjects of this study were sixth, seventh, and eighth grade LD and normal students. They were selected from a population in Anderson, Indiana. For the sample, a total of 60 LD students from 11 schools, eight elementary and three secondary were obtained. The 60 normal students were chosen from two schools, one elementary and one secondary. Grade level and ages of the sample were approximately equivalent. Following selection of the sample, all students were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children (NSSC). After the NSSC had been administered, 20 LD students, whose scores represented the highest 33.3% on the NSSC, and 20 LD students, whose scores represented the lowest 33.3% on the NSSC, were selected for the remaining portion of the study. The 20 LD students with the highest 33.3% of the scores were designated as external in their locus of control orientation (ELOC) while the 20 LD students whose scores represented the lowest 33.3% were designated as internal in their locus of control orientation (ILOC). The same procedures were followed in selecting the 40 normal students who were also classified as external or internal in their locus of control orientation.The LD and normal students were then administered four listening passages from the Analytical Reading Inventory. Two of the four passages were provided with structured introductions while the remaining two were not. Structured introductions were defined as the oral presentation of prelistening directions given to students in a counterbalanced fashion. They included both general information about the topic and the material to be read, and a preview of the sequence of events in the selection. Five null hypotheses were tested in this study. The first four hypotheses were examined using appropriate t-tests for planned comparisons after two two-way analyses of variance with repeated measures on the last factor were computed. Hypothesis number five was subjected to a t-test for independent groups. Using the .05 level of confidence as the predetermined criterion, only hypotheses number five was rejected. It was determined that LD students were significantly more external in their locus of control orientation than normal students. In the four instances where the hypotheses were not rejected, data indicated, for the LD and normal groups, that there were no significant differences in listening comprehension when the structured and unstructured introductions were administered. The findings of this study indicate, for these particular students, subject to the limitations of this investigation, that the presentation of structured introductions did not significantly improve the listening comprehension of LD subject. It was concluded, however, that LD subjects were operating on a more external locus of control orientation than normal subjects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180470 |
| Date | January 1979 |
| Creators | Scheinberg, Jerry M. |
| Contributors | Church, Jay K. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 4, viii, 199 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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