Oral Reading Comprehension Research Articles

The Relationship Among Oral Language, Decoding Skills, and Reading Comprehension in Children with Autism

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among oral language, decoding, and reading comprehension for children with autism. Participants included 13 English-speaking children with a diagnosis of high-functioning autism (IQ > 70) who were included in a typical classroom, and who had parents who spoke English. Parts of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, OWLS: Listening Comprehension, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test were administered to measure oral language abilities, and parts of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test and Test of Word Reading Efficiency were given to assess decoding and reading comprehension. Results indicated there was no significant relationship between phonology and decoding, but there was a significant relationship between semantics and decoding. There were also significant relationships between semantics and comprehension and syntax and comprehension.

Validity of CBM measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension on high-stakes reading assessments in Grades 7 and 8

We examined the criterion validity and diagnostic efficiency of oral reading fluency (ORF), word reading accuracy, and reading comprehension (RC) for students in Grades 7 and 8 taking into account form effects of ORF, time of assessment, and individual differences, including student designations of limited English proficiency and special education status. Participants were 1,481 students in Grade 7 and 1,462 in Grade 8 attending four middle schools in the Pacific Northwest. Results indicated that (a) the majority of variance in ORF is between individuals, (b) a single ORF passage appears to be equally predictive of the state assessment of reading performance as the mean or the median across three passages, (c) ORF and RC explain 55–58 % of the variance in the state assessment, and (d) a combination of ORF and RC leads to more accurate diagnosis of students who might be at risk for not passing the state assessment than either measure alone. Word reading accuracy contributes little to the prediction of state test scores or risk status. Implications for practice and future research are addressed.

The Impact of Text-to-Speech on Expository Reading for Adolescents with LD

Text-to-speech (TTS) technology holds promise as a compensatory tool for adolescents with learning disabilities in accessing grade-level expository text. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design examined the effectiveness of TTS on oral reading fluency, comprehension, and task completion time for two males and one female with reading disabilities in a Midwest junior high school. TTS did not affect students' fluency, comprehension, or task completion time, although social validity interviews revealed that each student valued the independence and efficiency TTS provided. Students believed they comprehended fully, read more fluently, and finished the reading task more quickly with TTS than without it. Limitations and implications for future research are addressed in this article.

The Effectiveness of Early Screening and Intervention for Children at Risk of Reading Underachievement

The purpose of this study was to develop a screening test for children at risk of reading underachievement and to investigate the effectiveness of the early-stage intervention program. In the first part of the study, we recruited 155 elementary first grade students for a screening test. Phonological deletion, digit naming, object naming, and sound-letter correspondence knowledge of a screening test, all assessed at the beginning of the school year, predicted the reading ability at the end of the school year. In the second part of the study, we analyzed the difference in the reading ability between fourteen children who participated in the intervention program and eighteen non-participating children. Reading ability was assessed by evaluating word recognition, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and pseudo-word recognition. The reading ability of intervention group improved more compared to control group, and the difference between two groups accentuated over time. However, final analysis conducted in November revealed that two groups did not differ significantly in oral reading fluency. This suggests that, unlike word recognition and comprehension, fluency might not dramatically improve in a short period.

Reading Arabic Shallow and Deep Genres: Indispensible Variables to Science of Reading

Most principles and propositions in the science of reading are derived from research on Latin orthographies,usually, in English while much less is known about Semitic orthographies, namely, Arabic. This studyinvestigated the effect of vowels and type of genre on oral accuracy, oral rate, and oral comprehension in readingArabic orthography. A convenience sample of 85 children (34 fifth male graders and 51 tenth male graders) wasselected from two public schools in Saudi Arabia. The researcher developed two reading measures; the FifthGrade Reading Measure and Tenth Grade Reading Measure. Each measure has two genres (informational andpoetic) and two versions (shallow/vowelized and deep/unvowelized). Each child individually completed the twoversions of the measure in his grade. The results revealed that the students read the shallow genres(informational and poetic) more accurately and with more comprehension but less rapidly than reading the deepgenres. In addition, the students read the informational genre (shallow and deep) more accurately, rapidly, andwith more comprehension than the poetic genre (shallow and deep). The discussion concludes that a) the natureof Arabic orthography, mainly vowels, is an indispensible variable to the literature of science of reading, b) oralreading accuracy, oral reading rate and oral reading comprehension are affected by the unique characteristics ofthe genre, and c) vowels in Arabic are important to improve oral reading accuracy, and oral readingcomprehension for the first grades in primary school and later grades in secondary school as well.

Relations among Oral Reading Fluency, Silent Reading Fluency, Retell Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

The aim of this research was to reveal the relations among fifth-grade Turkish students’ silent reading fluency, oral reading fluency, retell fluency, and reading comprehension. With this aim, the study used correlational survey design and the study sample consisted of total 389 fifth-grade Turkish elementary students studying in elementary schools. The schools were located in middle socioeconomic status and the students’ families had middle socioeconomic level. The informed consent letters obtained from all the students before the study began. For assessment process, the appropriate grade level texts were chosen and the students’ fluency skills were measured through one-on-one sessions in the suitable place in the elementary schools, provided by the school principals. After this process, the reading comprehension tests related to the grade level texts read was administered to all the students. The data obtained from testing process were analyzed and the findings were presented in respond to research aims. According to these results, the conclusions were drawn and some recommendations fitted with the results and conclusions were made for future research

The Indicating Factors of Oral Reading Fluency of Monolingual and Bilingual Children in Egypt

This study examined oral reading fluency (ORF) of bilingual and monolingual students. The author selected a sample of 510 (258 males and 252 females) native Arabic-speaking sixth-graders (62 bilinguals and 448 monolinguals) in Egypt. The purposes were; (a) to examine oral reading rate, oral reading accuracy, prosody, and oral reading comprehension as indicating factors in ORF, and b) to investigate the impact of bilingual education on students’ ORF in Arabic. Participants individually completed the author-developed Oral Reading Fluency Measure. Results indicated a very good fit between the proposed model and the observed data i.e., oral reading rate, oral reading accuracy, prosody, and oral reading comprehension are significant indicators of ORF. Interestingly, results revealed that the bilingual students performed better than their monolingual counterparts on oral reading rate, oral reading accuracy, and prosody but not on oral reading comprehension. The discussion concludes that (a) in addition to oral reading rate, oral reading accuracy, and prosody, oral reading comprehension is a significant indicating factor of ORF, (b) learning a second language, English, has a positive effect on ORF in the first language, Arabic, and (c) the nature of Arabic orthography is an indispensible factor when examining ORF in science of reading.

The Effects of a Supplementary Computerized Fluency Intervention on the Generalization of the Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension of First-Grade Students

The current study investigated the effects of a repeated reading intervention on the oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension on generalization passages for eight, first-grade students with reading risk. The intervention involved a commercial computerized program (Read Naturally Software Edition [RNSE], 2009) and a generalization principle requiring a “greater magnitude” of responding. A multiple probe experimental design with two treatment phases was used to determine the effects of the intervention. Phase I used a standard end-of-year benchmark score (i.e., 40 CWMP) as fluency criteria for all participants. During Phase II, fluency criteria were changed and individualized for each participant based on performance during Phase I. Data were collected on ORF and word retell fluency (WRF) across treatment and generalization probes. Results showed ORF and comprehension increases in both phases; however, satisfactory generalization did not occur for most of the participants until the second phase was implemented. These results are discussed relative to classroom implications and directions for future research.

Biliteracy acquisition in Kannada and English: A developmental study

This study investigated the contribution of decoding and language comprehension sub-skills to Kannada and English biliteracy development over three years in multilingual students in urban low-income communities in one large city in India. Syllabic awareness, phonemic awareness and decoding skills were measured in Grades 3–5 (Time 1), and participants were followed to Grades 6–8 (Time 2), when their oral language comprehension and reading comprehension skills were tested. Hierarchical regression results revealed that: (1) both syllabic and phonemic awareness predicted Kannada decoding scores; however, only phonemic awareness predicted English decoding scores; (2) decoding ability from Time 1 and language comprehension skills from Time 2 made unique contributions to reading comprehension skills at Time 2 in both languages; (3) there were significant cross-linguistic relationships between corresponding reading sub-skills at both times; and (4) there was an independent contribution of Kannada decoding to Engl...

Explaining Korean High School EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension with Simple View of Reading

This study assessed the adequacy of the simple view of reading (SVR) in explaining reading comprehension abilities of Korean high school EFL learners. In doing so, the previously unacknowledged indirect effects of oral language comprehension abilities and phonological awareness were also examined. Ninety six Korean EFL learners participated in this study and were tested on measures of oral language comprehension abilities, decoding skills, reading comprehension, and phonological awareness. The predictive relationship among these variables was further analyzed through structural equation modeling. The findings indicated that although SVR explained most of the variance in students’ reading comprehension abilities, it was the oral language comprehension abilities that made prominent contribution. Indirect effects of oral language abilities were not observed despite its significant correlation with decoding skills. The findings are discussed in terms of language learning contexts and the balance between language and literacy development.

Engaging Children With Autism in Shared Book Reading

Margot is a mother to three young children and is particularly invested in helping her children become strong readers. She makes an effort to read with her children daily, because she has been told by teachers and other professionals that reading with children is especially important in helping them develop reading skills. Sam, the youngest of her children, is a reluctant reader. He was diagnosed with autism last year when he was three years old, and he engages in challenging behaviors that make it difficult to read with him. Sam’s siblings show a natural affinity toward books and are excited to read with Margot, but when she includes Sam in book readings, he loses interest quickly and engages in behaviors that are distracting to his siblings, such as poking them or yawning loudly. When Margot asks if he would like to read a book just with her, he usually ignores her and continues playing with his trains (his favorite activity). Forceful attempts to make him read books result in screaming tantrums. Because of his challenging behaviors, Margot has stopped trying to get Sam to read with her or his siblings, but she worries that he will have difficulties reading in the future. The presence of a developmental disability has been associated with failures in learning to read (Landgren, Kjellman, & Gillberg, 2003). Given that children with disabilities are at higher risk for reading difficulties, it is especially important that they receive repeated opportunities to develop emergent literacy skills—particularly oral language, phonological awareness, and concepts about print—that can support later reading achievement (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). A common early literacy practice valued by early childhood professionals and parents is reading aloud with children. Reading books with children gained popularity during the 1980s in large part, because early childhood policy makers publicized that reading aloud was an excellent, developmentally appropriate instructional practice (Bredekamp, 1986). The frequency of book reading at early ages has been related to children’s oral language ability and reading comprehension skills in elementary school (Wells, 1985). Reading aloud to children emerged as a key facet of family literacy programs and the central focus of several public library outreach efforts (e.g., the Carnegie Library’s Beginning to Read program, Reading is Fundamental, “

The effect of sociolinguistic factors and English language proficiency on the development of French as a third language

The classroom demographics in French immersion (FI) programs across Canada are changing: There are a growing number of multilingual students who are learning English as a second language (L2) and French as a third language (L3). However, little is known about the development of French language proficiency and reading skills of multilingual students in the FI programs. The association between sociolinguistic factors as well as metalinguistic awareness, language proficiency, and literacy skills in the L2 and language proficiency and literacy skills in the L3 was investigated in this study. The sample included 55 students with an average age of 11 years and six months, in early FI programs who were tested at the end of Grade 6. Multiple regression analyses revealed that oral language proficiency and reading comprehension in English predicted oral language proficiency and reading comprehension skills in French, controlling for amount of reading in French and morphological awareness in English. This study demonstrated that although the majority of instruction in FI programs is in French, multilingual students continue to develop age-appropriate oral language proficiency and reading skills in English and French.

Using Repeated Reading to Improve Reading Speed and Comprehension in Students with Visual Impairments

Introduction This study evaluated whether children with visual impairments who receive repeated reading instruction exhibit an increase in their oral reading rate and comprehension and a decrease in oral reading error rates. Methods A single-subject, changing-criterion design replicated across three participants was used to demonstrate the association between a repeated reading intervention and the oral reading rate, comprehension, and error rate. Results Visual analysis of the data indicates that there was a functional relation between repeated reading and oral reading rate for two participants, and a functional relation between repeated reading and comprehension for all participants. There was not a functional relation between repeated oral reading and error rate. Discussion Based on the results of this study, repeated reading appears to be an effective practice for some students with visual impairments. Implications for practitioners Teachers and parents can engage children in repeated reading activities in an effort to develop automaticity in reading and to improve oral reading rates.

Late talking, typical talking, and weak language skills at middle childhood

To better understand early predictors of weak language and academic abilities, we identified children with and without weak abilities at age 8. We then looked back at age 2 vocabulary and word combining, and evaluated these measures as predictors of age 8 outcomes. More than 60% of children with weak oral language abilities at 8 were not late talkers at 2. However, no word combining at 2 was a significant risk factor for poor oral language, reading comprehension, and math outcomes at 8. The association of no word combining with age 8 reading comprehension and math ability was mediated by age 8 oral language ability. The findings indicate that children take different developmental pathways to weak language abilities in middle childhood. One begins with a delayed onset of language. A second begins with language measures in the typical range, but ends with language ability falling well below typical peers.

Student Learning in Hybrid French and Spanish Courses

This paper summarizes the assessment results of the Language Online project at Carnegie Mellon University. The study investigated the effectiveness of online language courses for students' learning outcomes in four hybrid online language courses (elementary and intermediate levels) and their counterpart conventional (offline) courses from Spring 2000 through Spring 2002. Eleven teachers and 354 students were involved in this study, which included five semesters and 34 sections (13 online and 21 offline). Multiple measurements were used to compare learning between online and offline students in oral production, written production, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, grammar knowledge, and vocabulary. Student and teacher feedback, reflecting attitudes and experiences with the online courses, were used to better understand the comparative results. The results from this study indicate that the hybrid online language courses have been reasonably successful: the students in most online courses made progress in their L2 performance similar to that of the students in the equivalent offline courses. Statistical analyses identified two online courses in which the offline students outperformed the online students on several of the learning measures. The qualitative data suggest that students need instructor guidance and that both students and instructors need ongoing technical support for the successful implementation of online language courses.

The Role of Reading Rate in the Informal Assessment of Reading Ability

This article, which focuses on oral reading rate, reports findings from a large assessment study in rural North Carolina. Students in grades 2 to 6 were assessed on the following measures: isolated word recognition (timed and untimed); oral reading accuracy, reading rate, and reading comprehension. Overall, the results (1) support traditional “instructional-level” criteria in reading diagnosis (e.g., word recognition-timed = 75%; oral reading accuracy = 95%); (2) provide tentative oral reading rate minimums for each grade level, 2 through 6; and (3) suggest that a word recognition-in-isolation measure, if timed (½ second), is an excellent predictor of oral reading rate or fluency. Practical implications accompany each of these findings.

The Effects of Fluency Instruction on the Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension of First-Grade African American Males with Reading Risk

The Effects of Fluency Instruction on the Oral Reading Fluency and Comprehension of First-Grade African American Males with Reading Risk

Using Flashcard Drill Methods and Self-Graphing Procedures to Improve the Reading Performance of English Language Learners

The increasing numbers of English language learners who are enrolled in schools across the nation, combined with the escalating academic demands placed on all students, warrant the evaluation of instructional strategies designed to improve English language learners’ reading performance. In this study, the authors used a multiple baseline design across individuals to examine the effects of an intervention that combined (a) a vocabulary folding-in technique and (b) self-graphing procedures on the reading performance of 3 third-grade Spanish-speaking English language learners. Curriculum-based measurement oral reading fluency and reading comprehension probes were implemented to monitor the students’ reading progress. Results indicated that the combined intervention improved the participants’ reading performance as measured by vocabulary sight words, reading fluency, and reading comprehension tasks. Implications of this research, including how school psychologists can use interventions such as these to serve as interventionists, are discussed.

Music education for improving reading skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia

Dyslexia (or developmental dyslexia or specific reading disability) is a specific learning disorder that has a neurobiological origin. It is marked by difficulties with accurate or fluent recognition of words and poor spelling in people who have average or above average intelligence and these difficulties cannot be attributed to another cause, for example, poor vision, hearing difficulty, or lack of socio-environmental opportunities, motivation, or adequate instruction. Studies have correlated reading skills with musical abilities. It has been hypothesized that musical training may be able to remediate timing difficulties, improve pitch perception, or increase spatial awareness, thereby having a positive effect on skills needed in the development of language and literacy. To study the effectiveness of music education on reading skills (that is, oral reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and spelling) in children and adolescents with dyslexia. We searched the following electronic databases in June 2012: CENTRAL (2012, Issue 5), MEDLINE (1948 to May Week 4 2012 ), EMBASE (1980 to 2012 Week 22), CINAHL (searched 7 June 2012), LILACS (searched 7 June 2012), PsycINFO (1887 to May Week 5 2012), ERIC (searched 7 June 2012), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1970 to 6 June 2012), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Sciences and Humanities (1990 to 6 June 2012), and WorldCat (searched 7 June 2012). We also searched the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and reference lists of studies. We did not apply any date or language limits. We planned to include randomized controlled trials. We looked for studies that included at least one of our primary outcomes. The primary outcomes were related to the main domain of the reading: oral reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and spelling, measured through validated instruments. The secondary outcomes were self esteem and academic achievement. Two authors (HCM and RBA) independently screened all titles and abstracts identified through the search strategy to determine their eligibility. For our analysis we had planned to use mean difference for continuous data, with 95% confidence intervals, and to use the random-effects statistical model when the effect estimates of two or more studies could be combined in a meta-analysis. We retrieved 851 references via the search strategy. No randomized controlled trials testing music education for the improvement of reading skills in children with dyslexia could be included in this review. There is no evidence available from randomized controlled trials on which to base a judgment about the effectiveness of music education for the improvement of reading skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia. This uncertainty warrants further research via randomized controlled trials, involving a interdisciplinary team: musicians, hearing and speech therapists, psychologists, and physicians.

Relationship between second grade oral reading fluency and third grade reading

Oral reading fluency is a critical feature and outcome of early literacy instruction and it has amassed great attention as a powerful predictor of success at all levels of schooling. We examined relationships between second grade oral reading fluency scores and third grade end-of-grade reading achievement scores for students (N = 9562) in a large school district in the United States. Stakeholder interviews were also conducted. In our model, oral reading fluency and reading comprehension scores were moderately correlated; oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of subsequent achievement, followed by ethnicity; growth on oral reading fluency was not strongly associated with end-of-grade performance; and greater than 90% of students classified as ‘at risk’ on benchmark assessments performed poorly on third grade assessments. Stakeholders believed that oral reading fluency testing was not necessary above selected levels of proficiency. We discuss implications of our findings for future research and practice.