Teaching Oral Reading: A Review with Recommendations for Improving Instruction

Abstract

The teaching of reading is one of the most frequently investigated curricular areas, but most studies have not contributed significantly to the ability of teachers to maximize the effectiveness of classroom instruction. Oral reading represents a particular problem area for classroom teachers. The failure of current findings to greatly enhance teaching of oral reading stems from several factors. A review of the literature revealed that, on the whole, insufficient information is provided with regard to such areas as initial assessment, pinpointing errors, curriculum readability factors, teaching strategies and the basis for selecting teaching strategies. These and related concerns are discussed, with recommendations for improving future efforts to teach oral reading.