Reading Practice for Beginners: Effects of Guided Reading, Reading-While-Listening, and Independent Reading with Computer-Based Speech Feedback

Abstract

THE PURPOSE of this study was to determine which of three ways of practicing reading best facilitates the development of efficient reading skills in beginners: guided reading, readingwhile-listening, or independent reading with computer-generated speech feedback available for students to use at will. Seventy-two first-grade students in the three experimental conditions and a control condition read a passage of text each day for five consecutive days. Except in the control condition, the five texts repeated 20 target words that were relatively hard to read for beginners. Students were tested on the 20 words before and after treatment, and changes in rate and accuracy were analyzed. Both guided reading and independent reading with self-selected speech feedback were found to be significantly more effective than the control and reading-while-listening conditions. The findings suggest that increases in reading efficiency depend largely on the amount of independent, self-propelled reading activity of young readers. If such independent activity is included, computer-aided practice with speech feedback seems promising as a means of improving reading skills in beginners.