2016 Volume 40 Issue 1 Pages 50-67
This study investigates inference generation in story reading based on the comprehensive inference framework of Graesser, Singer, and Trabasso (1994) of children with hearing impairments. The participants were 36 children with hearing impairments from the 2nd, 4th and 6th grades. Three types of story were read by these participants and they were asked 11 questions corresponding with 11 types of inference. As a result, the tendency that children with hearing impairments performed inference based on causation was shown, and especially a high rate of local inference generation in contexts with constraints was suggested. As for the global and elaborative inference generation, they were different in sub-inference types according to the necessity of selection and integration of relevant information and also the importance of related information. Although no statistical difference was found in the developmental tendency of inference generation, qualitative change in inference development was suggested, and in the inference of feeling of the characters of the story, the use of information would be different in students of different school grades.
