19 Journal of ICSAR ISSN (print): 2548-8619; ISSN (online): 2548-8600 Volume 2 Number 1 January 2018 Using Text with Pictures in Primary School to Improve Reading Comprehension for Hearing Impaired Students Abdul Rahim Razalli, Renate Olga Thomas, Nordin Mamat, Noreha Yusuf Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Malaysia E-mail: Rahim.r@fpm.upsi.edu.my Abstract: The objectives of the study are to determine whether using text with pictures is effective to improve reading comprehension for students with hearing impairment, to examine other strategies that can support the development or improvement of reading comprehension for students with hearing impairment and to determine the factors affecting reading comprehension for students with hearing impairment. A qualitative research design was chosen to answer three research questions. Two sets of instruments (observational checklist and interview questionnaires) have been used to obtain information of reading comprehension and factors that infuence it. Six hearing impaired students and fve teachers were selected as the respondents through purposive sampling technique. The fndings show that text with pictures can help to improve reading comprehension for students with hearing impairment. The implications of this study show that text with pictures motivate students with hearing impairment to read and it have to be encouraged in primary school. A more comprehensive study should be undertaken for higher order thinking skills and the use of interactive models for reading comprehension lessons for students with hearing impairment.skills are across all subjects. Keywords: reading comprehension, hearing impaired students, reading factors and reaching strategies Hearing impaired (HI) students same as the hearing students, they must understand passages, stories and sentences from various school subjects. All students should be able to make a distinction of the important facts and ideas from words they are reading and recognizing words that are unimportant. At times this remains diffcult for hearing impaired students for the reason that, they are reading words or sentences they cannot comprehend. Reading is a dual progress whereby one part is the aptitude to decode print and know what one is reading and another part is reading comprehension and without it, one is not truly reading (Bickham, 2015). Among students, these skills are highly related but there are some populations of children who struggle with the skills necessary to either decode or comprehend. In other words, when most children learn to read, hey either develop the skills to both decode and comprehend or they do not. Yet there are students who are capable decoders but still perform poorly on measures of reading comprehension because they are not making the necessary connections between words as they form sentences, paragraphs and entire texts. The inability to understand the meanings of words cause problems for comprehension. Effectively teaching students to read and write well in English and mother tongue is an important responsibility in today’s primary schools. It can be said that a child who is accomplishing well on measures of reading comprehension is by default a satisfactory decoder, since without knowing the words it is diffcult to comprehend the message on paper. Reading comprehension is a serious skill that is needed for attainment in school and beyond, yet many students are reading below grade level. Research has shown that poor reading ability has been associated with poor school performance in general, behavioral problems and poor mental health. This makes a strong case for the reading comprehension strategies for hearing impaired students. The term hearing impaired (HI) is one that is used frequently and it is regarded as a condition whereby a person is unable to hear. The language of a hearing impaired person is normally considered below that of a hearing person of the similar age as well as experiences. Most of the hearing impaired students have reading diffculty (Bickham, 2015). In order to improve reading comprehension for hearing impaired students, making words memorable by using visual aid which includes text with pictures, can be vital because it reduces the amount of practice required to get the words into students’ reading vocabulary. Words must have connected meanings, making the connections explicit help students remember the words which will increase their vocabulary and reading skill. As we all know that the eyes of the hearing impaired people are their ears, because they cannot hear and they mostly depend on what they see since they are visual oriented people. In order for them to learn or improve their reading, visual aid such as text with pictures should be used, because words cannot be presented or used in isolation, they need to be used in a meaningful context (Durkin,