重覆閱讀與非重覆閱讀對國小學童口語閱讀流暢度之效益研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文. 指導教授：葉潔宇博士 Advisor: Dr. Chieh-yue Yeh. 重覆閱讀與非重覆閱讀對國小學童口語閱讀流暢度之效益研究 The Effect of Repeated Reading and Non-Repeated Reading on EFL. 治政 Elementary School Students’ Oral Reading 大 Fluency 立 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. 研究生：林虹伶 Name: Hung-ling Lin 中華民國一百年十月 October, 2011. v.

(2) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(3) The Effect of Repeated Reading and Non-Repeated Reading on EFL Elementary School Students’ Oral Reading Fluency. A Master Thesis Presented to. 政治大. Department of English,. National Chengchi University. 學. ‧ 國. 立. ‧ er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. In Partial Fulfillment. n. v i n Ch of the Requirements U of i Degree e n g cforhthe Master of Arts. By Hung-ling Lin October, 2011. iii.

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(5) To Dr. Chieh-yue Yeh 獻給我的恩師葉潔宇博士. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(6) Acknowledgements I would like to express my greatest gratitude to those who provide me advice, encouragement, and support. It would not have been possible to complete this thesis without their assistance. I am sincerely thankful for my adviser Dr. Chieh-yue Yeh’s instruction. With her inspiring guidance and insightful suggestions, what I have learned is. 政治大. beyond composing a thesis. My appreciation is extended to the committee. 立. ‧ 國. 學. members, Chi-yee Lin and Yow-yu Lin, who provided me with valuable comments and professional suggestions.. ‧. Additionally, I would like to deliver my thanks to my colleagues,. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. Huei-shiuan Hung, Pei-ru Lee, Tung-shiuan Chen, Wen-ting Tsai, whose. i n U. v. assisted me when conducting the study. Finally, I would like to express my love. Ch. engchi. and appreciation to my beloved family, whose consistent support, encouragement, and faith in me helped me complete this thesis.. vi.

(7) TABLE OF CONTENTS. Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... xi ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... xvii CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................ 1. 政治大. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1. 立. Background and motivation of this study ....................................................... 1. ‧ 國. 學. Purpose of the study ...................................................................................... 2 Research Questions ...................................................................................... 3. ‧. Significance of the study ................................................................................ 3. sit. y. Nat. Definition of the terms .................................................................................... 4. er. io. CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................... 5. al. v i n Ch Reading fluency ............................................................................................. 5 engchi U n. LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 5. Reading automaticity theory ....................................................................... 6 Reading development stages and reading automaticity ............................. 8 Reading fluency and reading comprehension .......................................... 10 Oral reading fluency ................................................................................. 11 Reading fluency approaches and related studies ........................................ 12 Assisted oral reading ................................................................................ 12 Assisted repeated reading ........................................................................ 17 Comparisons of assisted and unassisted repeated reading ..................... 19 Comparison of repeated reading and non-repeated reading .................... 21 vii.

(8) Related studies in L2/ EFL context .............................................................. 24 CHAPTER THREE.......................................................................................... 27 METHODOLOGY............................................................................................ 27 Participants .................................................................................................. 28 Instruments .................................................................................................. 30 Graded readers ........................................................................................ 30 Pretest and posttest materials .................................................................. 33 Scoring system ......................................................................................... 34 Procedure .................................................................................................... 36. 政治大. Pilot study ................................................................................................. 37. 立. Main study ................................................................................................ 41. ‧ 國. 學. The assessing procedure ......................................................................... 42 Teaching procedure ................................................................................. 42. ‧. Data analysis ............................................................................................... 47. sit. y. Nat. CHAPTER FOUR............................................................................................ 49. io. er. RESULTS ....................................................................................................... 49. al. Results of the Pretest .................................................................................. 50. n. v i n C h Groups .................................................... Pretest of the RR and Non-RR 50 engchi U Pretest of the Higher Level Students in the RR and Non-RR Groups ...... 52. Pretest of the Lower Level Students in the RR and Non-RR Groups ....... 54 Posttest........................................................................................................ 57 Posttest of the RR and Non-RR Groups ................................................... 57 Posttest of the Higher Level Students in the RR and Non-RR Groups ..... 62 Posttest of the Lower Level Students in the RR and Non-RR Groups...... 65 CHAPTER FIVE .............................................................................................. 69 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ................................................................ 69 Answers to the Research Questions ........................................................... 69 viii.

(9) Discussion ................................................................................................... 72 Consistent Findings .................................................................................. 72 Inconsistent Findings with Previous Studies ............................................ 77 Pedagogical Implications ............................................................................. 81 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................... 82 Suggestions for Future Studies ................................................................... 84 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 85 References ..................................................................................................... 87 Appendix A: Pretest and posttest assessing passage .................................... 95. 政治大. Appendix B: Scoring sheet .............................................................................. 96. 立. Appendix C: Self-monitoring record for the RR group ..................................... 97. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Appendix D: Self-monitoring record for the Non-RR group ............................. 98. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. ix. i n U. v.

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(11) LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 The 16 selected Phonics Readers and Sight Word Readers .................................................................................................. 33 Table 3.2 Scoring system.................................................................. 35 Table 3.3 Sample of scoring ............................................................. 36 Table 3.4 ........................................................................................... 38. 政治大. Statistics and Independent Samples t-test of the Pilot Study............ 38. 立. Table 4.1 ........................................................................................... 51. ‧ 國. 學. Levene’s Test on the Participants’ Pretest and Posttest ................... 51. ‧. Table 4.2 ........................................................................................... 52. Nat. er. io. sit. y. Statistics and Independent Samples t-test of the Participants’ Pretest .................................................................................................. 52. al. n. v i n Ch Table 4.3 ........................................................................................... 53 engchi U Leven’s Test on the Higher Level Participants’ Pretest ..................... 53 Table 4.4 ........................................................................................... 54 Statistics and Independent Samples t-test on the Higher Level Participants in the RR and Non-RR Groups’ Pretest ................. 54 Table 4.5 ........................................................................................... 55 Leven’s Test on the Lower Level Participants’ Pretest ...................... 55 xi.

(12) Table 4.6 Statistics and Independent Samples t-test of the Lower Level Participants in the RR and Non-RR Groups’ Pretest ................. 56 Table 4.7 ........................................................................................... 58 Paired Samples t-test for Progress in the RR and Non-RR Group ... 58 Table 4.8 ........................................................................................... 61 Statistics and Independent Samples t-test of the Participants’ posttest. 政治大. .................................................................................................. 61. 立. Table 4.9 ........................................................................................... 63. ‧ 國. 學. Paired Samples t-test for Progress of the higher level students in the. ‧. RR and Non-RR Groups............................................................ 63. Nat. io. sit. y. Table 4.10 ......................................................................................... 64. er. Between-group Independent Samples t-test on the Higher Level. al. n. v i n C hand Non-RR Groups’ Participants in RR e n g c h i U Posttest...................... 64. Table 4.11 ......................................................................................... 66 Paired Samples t-test for Progress of the Lower Level Students in the RR and Non-RR Groups............................................................ 66 Table 4.12 ......................................................................................... 67 Between-group Independent Samples t-test of Lower Level Participants in RR and Non-RR Groups’ Posttest...................... 67 xii.

(13) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Procedure of the Study .................................................... 40 Figure 3.2 Procedure of the Study .................................................... 46 Figure 4.1 RR Participants’ Pretest and Posttest Scores .................. 59 Figure 4.2 RR Participants’ Pretest and Posttest Scores on Accuracy .................................................................................................. 59. 政治大. Figure 4.3 Non-RR Participants’ Pretest and Posttest Scores on WPM. 立. .................................................................................................. 59. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 4.4 Non-RR Participants’ Pretest and Posttest Scores on ..... 60. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. xiii. i n U. v.

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(15) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班. 碩士論文摘要提要. 論文名稱：重覆閱讀與非重覆閱讀對國小學童口語閱讀流暢度之效益研究指導教授：葉潔宇博士研究生：林虹伶論文摘要：. 立. 政治大. 本研究旨在了解並比較重覆閱讀及非重覆閱讀對於國小四年級學童的口語閱. ‧ 國. 學. 讀流暢度的影響。本研究以台灣北部某國小四年級中的兩個班級為研究對象，共. ‧. 為 59 人。此閱讀能力相近的兩個班級經隨機分派指定為重覆閱讀組及非重覆閱. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. 讀組。在為期 16 週，每週一節的實驗教學中，重覆閱讀組以重覆閱讀法每週閱. v. 讀同一本英文讀本，而非重覆閱讀組以非重覆閱讀法每週閱讀兩本讀本。兩組皆. Ch. engchi. i n U. 於教學前及教學後接受口語閱讀測驗，以了解接受不同教學法的學童在口語閱讀速度及正確性是否有差異。測驗所得的資料以成對樣本 t 檢定及獨立樣本 t 檢定分析進行統計分析。研究結果顯示重覆閱讀與非重覆閱讀皆能顯著提升研究對象的口語閱讀速度及正確性。此外，非重覆閱讀與重覆閱讀對於受試學童的口語閱讀流暢度顯示相似的成效。此研究結果盼能提供教學者彈性的運用此兩種閱讀教學法並更加重視口語閱讀流暢性的重要。 xv.

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(17) ABSTRACT The study aims to examine and compare the effect of assisted repeated reading (RR) and non-repeated reading (Non-RR) approaches on EFL young learners’ oral reading rate and accuracy rate. Two classes with homogenous reading level consisting of 59 fourth graders were selected from one elementary school in northern Taiwan and were randomly assigned to two groups, the RR. 政治大. and Non-RR group. During the 16-week instruction, one period of class per. 立. week, the RR group practiced reading aloud on one reader with assisted. ‧ 國. 學. repeated reading approach, whereas the Non-RR group practiced reading. ‧. aloud on two readers with assisted non-repeated reading approach each class.. Nat. io. sit. y. The data collected from the pretest and posttest assessing the participants’ oral. n. al. er. reading rate and accuracy rate were analyzed by paired samples t-tests and. Ch. independent samples t-tests.. engchi. i n U. v. The results revealed that the RR and Non-RR groups performed equivalent growth on their reading rate and accuracy rate with significant improvement. It is hoped that the findings provide a deeper understanding on the effect of assisted repeated reading and non-repeated reading on EFL young learners’ oral reading fluency and are applied in classrooms.. xvii.

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(19) CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION. Background and motivation of this study During these years, early literacy has been one of the focuses in second language or EFL environment. As a trend, formal English courses have been. 政治大. implemented in schools in Taiwan starting from primary education. In addition,. 立. in 2010, the Educational Bureau of Taipei County (2010) announced that two. ‧ 國. 學. periods of additional English class would be implemented into elementary. ‧. schools in Taipei County and reading is one of the major emphases. As a result,. y. Nat. er. io. sit. emergent reading instruction has received increasingly emphasis in Taiwan. Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text. al. n. v i n C the five components comprehension are reported ash e n g c h i U of learning reading in the National Reading Panel (2000). The importance of reading fluency lies on the high correlation with reading comprehension. According to LaBerge and Samuels’ automaticity theory (1974), learners who read fast and effortlessly are able to shift their attention from word recognition to comprehending the texts. Based on the automaticity theory, Samuels (1979) proposed a reading fluency approach, repeated reading, to help students read automatically. 1.

(20) Evidence has shown promise that repeated reading is one of the most effective methods to advance students’ reading rate and accuracy (Samuels, 1979), yet some drawbacks exist (Logan, 1997). Meanwhile, previous studies (Homa, Klesius, & Hite, 1993; M. Kuhn, 2004; Perfetti, 1985) comparing the effectiveness of repeated reading (RR) and non-repeated (Non-RR) reading demonstrated similar effect on students’ oral reading rate and accuracy rate.. 政治大. Nevertheless, little research has been found on the context of L2/ EFL. 立. environment. Accordingly, there is a need to conduct a research comparing. ‧ 國. 學. repeated reading and non-repeated reading approaches on EFL students’. ‧. reading fluency.. y. Nat. n. er. io. al. sit. Purpose of the study. i n U. v. The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of assisted repeated. Ch. engchi. reading and non-repeated reading on EFL young learners’ oral reading fluency. If RR and Non-RR leads to similar effect on EFL young beginners’ oral reading fluency, non-repeated reading can serve as an alternative approach for reading fluency instruction.. 2.

(21) Research Questions Based on the purpose of the study, three research questions were investigated in the present study: 1.. Is assisted non-repeated reading as effective as assisted repeated reading in improving EFL beginners’ reading rate and accuracy rate?. 2.. Is there a significant difference between assisted repeated reading and. 政治大. assisted non- repeated reading on higher-level readers’ reading rate and. 立. accuracy rate?. ‧ 國. 學. 3.. Is there a significant difference between assisted repeated reading and. ‧. assisted non-repeated reading on lower-level readers’ reading rate and. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. accuracy rate?. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Significance of the study. The present study extended previous literature to EFL young beginners. The findings aid to the understandings of the effect of repeated reading and non-repeated reading approaches on EFL emergent readers. It is hoped that the findings may provide beneficial suggestions for teachers to help students’ reading fluency development.. 3.

(22) Definition of the terms Assisted reading: Assisted reading refers to the reading approaches which aim to improve students’ reading fluency by providing students with assistance while they are reading. Assisted reading approaches are widely adopted in classrooms such as choral reading, echo reading, and listening-while reading. Repeated reading: Repeated reading is proposed by Samuels (1979) based. 政治大. on automaticity theory (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). It intends to help students. 立. read fast and effortlessly through rereading the same short meaningful text. ‧ 國. 學. independently.. ‧. Non-repeated reading: Non-repeated reading intends to improve students’. y. Nat. er. io. sit. reading fluency by exposing students to connected text without overly rereading the same short passage. In this study, non-repeated reading refers. al. n. v i n C h more than twice, to reading each same passage no e n g c h i U because Dowhower (1987) suggested that when applying repeated reading, the ideal repeated times are between three to five times.. 4.

(23) CHAPTER TWO. LITERATURE REVIEW This study aims to compare the differences of repeated reading and non-repeated reading approaches on EFL young beginners’ oral reading rate and accuracy rate. This chapter presents relevant literature in three sections. Section one reviews the importance of reading fluency. Section two elaborates. 政治大. reading fluency approaches and related studies. The last section, section three,. 立. sit. Nat. Reading fluency. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. explores related studies in L2/ EFL context.. er. io. Although there is agreement toward the importance of reading fluency,. al. n. v i n there seems to be no single definition fluency. The Literacy C h of reading U engchi Dictionary (Harris & Hodges, 1995) defines reading fluency as ―freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension‖ (p.85). It interprets reading fluency as accuracy and comprehension. Meanwhile, reading fluency is often referred to oral reading fluency. The National Reading Panel (2000) regards reading fluency as the ability to read with accuracy, speed, and proper expression. In regard with prosody, a number of studies (M.. 5.

(24) R. Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; O'Connor, White, & Swanson, 2007) have indicated that students reading with prosody usually show more comprehension on reading. Those students can segment sentences into meaningful phrases and read in word groups instead of word by word (Dowhower, 1987). In addition, as Rasinski and Hoffman (2003) defined reading fluency as the ability to read with accuracy, speed, prosody and automaticity, automaticity is specified as a. 政治大. component of reading fluency. Research (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Therrien,. 立. 2004) has shown that fast and accurate word recognition leads to automatic. ‧ 國. 學. reading, which allows readers to save their energy for comprehending the text.. ‧. Accordingly, the importance of reading rate and accuracy has been. Nat. io. sit. y. documented in literature. Meanwhile, due to the lack of clear evidence whether. er. reading with prosody leads to better comprehension or better comprehension. al. n. v i n C h(T. Rasinski, Rikli,U& Johnston, 2009), the leads to better reading prosody engchi. present study focused reading fluency on two components: oral reading rate and accuracy.. Reading automaticity theory Reading automaticity theory was first introduced by LaBerge and Samuels (1974). They stated, ―Automaticity refers to the ability to perform complex skills 6.

(25) with minimal attention and conscious effort‖ (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974, p. 107). It is often compared to skill learning (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). Take learning to swim as an example, at an initial stage. Learners can only focus on every movement trying to maintain floating in the water. After more and more practices, when the basic sub-skills are formed and performed unconsciously, learners’ attention can be gradually shifted to other higher-level skills. They. 政治大. then can fluently connect all the movements effortlessly, rhythmically and. 立. automatically keeping forwarding in the water.. ‧ 國. 學. When automaticity is associated with reading, reading automaticity. ‧. interprets the importance of reading rate. According to Samuels (1974), when. Nat. io. sit. y. one reads, the resources for processing the information is limited. One has to. er. accomplish two tasks at once: word recognition and comprehension. If most of. al. n. v i n C h and recognizingUthe words, there will be only the attention is used for decoding engchi little or no resource for attending the meaning. On the other hand, when the sub-skills of reading are being processed accurately, quickly, and easily, the brain can be freed to process higher-order thinking (Timothy V Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003). With reading automaticity, readers’ working memory will not. be packed to capacity for word recognition sub-skills and can be functioned for comprehension (Musti-Rao, Hawkins, & Barkley, 2009). For emergent readers, 7.

(26) the process to activate the reading sub-skills such as letter-naming correspondences and phonological processing to recognize the words is new and needs much attention. They might therefore concentrate most of their energy on decoding the prints and left only few for understanding the text. Although readers who recognize words slowly can still shift their attention to get the meaning, the process will be struggling instead of enjoyable.. 政治大. Nevertheless, for some struggling readers, even though they finally pronounce. 立. the words, they often just ―call‖ (Stanovich, 1986) the words without getting its. ‧ 國. 學. meaning and hence become word callers. In short, when sub-skills of word. ‧. recognition are processed automatically, readers are able to focus on the. Nat. er. io. sit. y. meaning of the texts more.. al. n. v i n C hand reading automaticity Reading development stages engchi U. In Chall’s six stages of reading development model (1983), she pointed out that the first three stages refers to learners who are learning to read, while the last three stages refers to learns who achieve reading automaticity and are able to read to learn. It implies that automatic reading ability is the gateway to reading for learning. The stages characterize learners from preschool to grade eight based on 8.

(27) their reading abilities. The first stage, stage 0, is ―logographic stage‖ when learners recognize words by context and experiences such as pictures and logos instead of the letters (Villaume & Brabham, 2003). The second stage, stage 1, describes learners who can apply their phonological knowledge to decode words. When learns can decode and recognize words easily, they move toward the third stage, stage 2. In stage 2, learners are able to read. 政治大. automatically which includes reading with speed and accuracy (Samuels &. 立. Flor, 1997). Once they can read automatically, they can make use of their. ‧ 國. 學. energy for upper-level skills to comprehend the text. The focus of this stage is. ‧. not about learning new reading skills, instead, it’s about sharpening their word. Nat. io. sit. y. recognition skills until they become automatic (Nichols, Rupley, & Rasinski,. er. 2009). As a result, exposing students to abundant reading is important for. al. n. v i n C hstudents read words stage 2 readers because it helps e n g c h i U accurately and gradually move from reading word by word to fluent reading. In this stage, learners’ focus gradually shifts from word recognition to comprehending the texts. After learners acquire automatic reading skill, they can go through stage 3 to 5 to apply their reading skills to learn more about the world as well as to create and convey their own world through reading.. 9.

(28) Reading fluency and reading comprehension Reading comprehension, as the target goal of reading instruction, is empirically confirmed in great amount of studies to have a high correlation with reading fluency (Jenkins, Fuchs, van den Broek, Espin, & Deno, 2003). Furthermore, studies have shown that in most research which focuses on beginning readers, the correlation between reading fluency and reading. 政治大. comprehension is strong (Rupley, Willson, & Nichols, 1998; Spear-Swerling &. 立. Sternberg, 1994).. ‧ 國. 學. In Samuel’s Automaticity Theory (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974), they. ‧. suggested that when word recognition is automatic, the working memory can. Nat. io. sit. y. be freed to comprehend the text. Although fast and accurate word recognition. er. does not directly lead to perfect comprehension, slow and incorrect word. al. n. v i n C hcomprehension.UIn National Reading Panel’s recognition does impede reading engchi review (2000), the average effect size for the ninety nine research comparing reading fluency, word knowledge, and comprehension was 0.50, which indicated that reading rate and reading comprehension is reciprocal. Related studies (Jenkins, et al., 2003; Perfetti & Hogaboam, 1975) have demonstrated that readers with good comprehension skills read words faster than those who do not perform good comprehension in reading. 10.

(29) Oral reading fluency Oral reading, compared with silent reading, is usually the primary reading fluency instruction method for readers in the early learning stages during these decades and has always maintained the dominant approach inside classrooms. 政治大. (Timothy V Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003).. 立. In the history of oral reading fluency, the art of oral reading has been one. ‧ 國. 學. of the focuses and has been integrated into curriculum since the middle of the. ‧. 19th century (Timothy V Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003). However, during the end. Nat. io. sit. y. of the 19th century, the focus of reading instructional method shifted from oral. er. reading to silent reading, because critics (Hyatt, 1943) at that time assumed. al. n. v i n C hfor practicing mechanic that oral reading was a method e n g c h i U reading skills.. In the late 20th century, a recall of the benefits of oral reading was claimed. The advantages of oral reading instruction are that students can have feedbacks immediately and the teachers can understand their students’ reading level more clearly. Oral reading has then been combined with silent reading in reading program for checking learners’ word recognition ability. Approaches like round robin reading is often applied in classrooms at the time 11.

(30) (Hoffman, 1987). Students take turns to read a short sentence or paragraph and receive feedbacks from the teacher or their peers. Hence, oral reading instruction is not only seen as a mechanical reading instruction, rather, it is seen as a diagnostic indicator of reading ability. Studies in extensive research have shown that oral reading fluency and reading achievement have a high correlation (M. R. Kuhn & Stahl, 2003;. 政治大. Melanie, Paula, Robin, Lesley Mandel, & et al., 2006; Therrien, 2004).. 立. Consequently, oral reading fluency can be taken as an indicator of reading. ‧ 國. 學. comprehension (Jenkins, et al., 2003). In short, we can assume that fluent oral. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. ‧. reading can serve as a bridge to reading comprehension.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Reading fluency approaches and related studies Oral reading approaches include reading aloud approaches such as repeated reading and other non-repeated reading approaches.. Assisted oral reading Assisted oral reading includes reading aloud approaches which enhance. 12.

(31) students’ reading fluency development by providing students support. Assistance in oral reading instruction can be aural input from audio devices or guidance from teachers, peers, or parents. Approaches include echo reading, choral reading, partner reading, paired reading, cloze reading, and listening-while-reading (Welsch, 2006). In echo reading, students repeat the same lines after the teacher. The. 政治大. teachers demonstrate accurate pronunciation and proper expression for the. 立. students. Choral reading, as Heckelman’s (1969) proposal of the neurological. ‧ 國. 學. impress method, can be adopted in whole-class activity, small group activity or. ‧. individual instruction. In whole-class or small group reading, students read. Nat. io. sit. y. along the same text in unison. In individual instruction, the teacher or. er. assistance presents as a reading model and work together with the students.. al. n. v i n Students were encouraged toCchoose easier for them and read together h e nbooks gchi U with the teacher or assistant. Partner reading, or peer-mediated reading, refers to the approach in which students work in pairs and read the passage to each other alternatively. In partner reading, students usually provide assistance to each other and monitor each other’ reading at the same time (Musti-Rao, et al., 2009). A related study (Yurick, Robinson, Cartledge, Lo, & Evans, 2006) was conducted to compare the effect of different groupings to the students’ oral 13.

(32) reading improvement. The results showed that the students with partner reading approach receiving their peer’s feedback outperformed the students who worked as a whole-class group. Paired reading is originally designed for parents and children to work together at home. Being adapted into classrooms, it can be operated between learners with different ages and levels. When heterogeneous students are paired, both higher-level students and lower-level. 政治大. students will benefit from co-operative learning (Topping, 1989). Lower level. 立. students can receive assistance and feedback by their partners and acquire a. ‧ 國. 學. more fluent reading manner from their partners. Lower level students in this. ‧. case can receive demonstration and independent instruction. Results show. Nat. io. sit. y. that with well-structured pairing and material selection, both tutors and tutees. er. advanced their reading rates. However, pairing isolated students can be. al. n. v i n C hshow that if the material challenging. In addition, studies e n g c h i U is way below tutor’s competence, the tutor can hardly gain fluent improvement. In cloze reading, the teacher reads the text with intentionally pauses and students have to fill in the blanks orally (Homa, et al., 1993). It can provide students scaffoldings of the difficulty words first. Gradually, the students can read longer phrases and build up sentences. Listening-while-reading is first being mentioned in Chomsky’s (1978) research. Students are provided readings with audio inputs. 14.

(33) Learners can listen to the audio inputs repeatedly according to their own need until they are comfortable to read the readings alone. In the National Reading Panels’ (2000) review of studies, assisted and guided oral reading contributed to clear and agreeing improvements in every aspect of reading abilities, including fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.. Traditional repeated reading in L1 context. 政治大. Repeated reading (RR) is a reading fluency teaching method derived from. 立. Samuels and LaBerge’s automaticity theory (1974). In order to achieve. ‧ 國. 學. reading automaticity, Samuels (1979) suggested that by repeatedly practicing. ‧. the elements in the same short passage, students can sharpen their word. Nat. io. sit. y. recognition skills and gradually speed up their reading rate. Fast and effortless. er. word recognition leads to reading automaticity which enhances students’. al. n. v i n C h Samuels (1979) reading comprehension improvement. e n g c h i U argued that. comprehension can be gained through rereading because students can devote most of their attention on comprehending the text rather than on decoding and recognizing the words. Repeated reading, as Samuels (1979) stated, is "a supplemental reading program that consists of rereading a short and meaningful passage until a satisfactory level of fluency is reached‖ (p.377). During the reading session, 15.

(34) students are provided with a short and interesting story according to their levels. The students practice it independently and take turns to read to the assistant. While they read to the teacher or assistant, the total words they have read in one minute and the number of error words will be charted on one graph. With the feedback, students go back to their seat to correct their own errors independently and practice the same passage repeatedly for the next record.. 政治大. Once they achieve the criterion of 85 correct words per minute (wpm), they are. 立. provided with another short and meaningful passage (Samuels, 1979).. ‧ 國. 學. Repeated reading has been regarded as one of the most effective reading. ‧. approaches because related studies revealed positive outcomes practicing RR. Nat. io. sit. y. on students regardless of ages and levels. For instance, in NRP’s (2000). er. review, RR is convincing on improving students’ reading rate and decreased. al. n. v i n C h repeated reading the students’ errors. Interestingly, e n g c h i U leads to isolated word recognition improvement, yet isolated word recognition dose not lead to reading fluency improvement (Therrien & Jr., 2007). Therefore, repeated. reading aids students only in reading connect words instead of word list. In Therrien’s (2004) meta-analysis, RR not only benefited students’ reading rate and accuracy, but also improved their comprehension. Further, the improvements made after RR instruction was transferable to unpracticed 16.

(35) passages. In each new reading, students needed less time to achieve the reading rate criterion and decrease the miscues on each new story (Dowhower, 1987; Samuels, 1979; Therrien, 2004). Though critics (O'Connor, et al., 2007; T. V. Rasinski, 1990) pointed out that repeated reading might be tedious and restricted, Samuels (1979) declared that students’ motivation was increased as they observed their own growth on the recorded graph. Likewise, Amarel. 政治大. (1978) argued that knowing that repeated reading was beneficial for their. 立. reading fluency and comprehension, beginning readers were willing to. ‧ 國. 學. involving the activity. In sum, through repeated reading, word recognition. ‧. abilities, reading speed, accuracy, as well as comprehension can be gained.(M.. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. R. Kuhn & Stahl, 2003).. Assisted repeated reading. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. For greater ease of use, traditional repeated reading has been later on modified and integrated with assisted oral reading approaches such as listening-while-reading, paired reading, and choral reading to provide students scaffolding (Timothy V Rasinski & Hoffman, 2003). The benefits of assisted repeated reading are that the assistance scaffolds the students and provides them a reading model. Several studies (Begeny, Krouse, Ross, & Mitchell, 17.

(36) 2009a; Dowhower, 1987) in L1 and L2/EFL settings have revealed that assisted RR is beneficial for readers regardless of ages, levels, or learning circumstances. It can be practiced to normal learners from second graders to university students who are behind levels, or with learning disabilities, autism, or low vision. It can also be applied into a whole-classroom activity and can be applied to small-group remedial learning or individual special learning.. 政治大. Chomsky (1978) conducted a research integrating listening-while-reading. 立. strategy with repeated reading in remedial instruction. Fourth graders. ‧ 國. 學. individually read the storybooks with audiotapes. They listened to the whole. ‧. story the first time and then repeatedly listened to a section they would like to. Nat. io. sit. y. read along until they were able to independently read the section. Meanwhile,. er. they can monitor themselves by recording their own readings (Chomsky, 1978).. al. n. v i n C hthose remedial students Over the 10-month intervention, gained great engchi U. progress in fluency and comprehension though they were still behind their levels. The materials were believed to be high above the learners’ level, though the difficulty level of the materials used was not reported in the study. Carbo (1978) replicated Chomsky’s research but carefully selected materials with difficulty levels slightly above the learners’ ability. Comparing to Chomsky’s study, the stories were modified and the reading rate in the audio 18.

(37) tape was controlled. Results showed significant improvement on the struggling readers’ word recognition. Critics believed that the difficulty level of materials was one of the key elements affecting the study (M. R. Kuhn & Stahl, 2003). Heckelman (1969) incorporated choral reading with repeated reading. Twenty-four middle school students worked in a remedial program for 7.25 hrs. Students were empowered to choose the stories they liked and worked with. 政治大. the teacher. With the assistance, the students who were behind their levels for. 立. about three years gained 1.9 year growth in average.. ‧ 國. 學. Kuhn (2003) reviewed nine studies on assisted repeated reading with. ‧. Nat. er. io. sit. differences between treatment and control groups.. y. control groups. In her review, six studies out of nine revealed significant. al. n. v i n C hunassisted repeated Comparisons of assisted and e n g c h i U reading Eldrege (1990) conducted a study to compare repeated reading with assistance and without assistance. The intervention group read the stories along with the teacher and then repeatedly practiced the same story themselves for several times. The control group received traditional repeated reading approach without assistance. Results showed that the intervention group with oral assistance outperformed the control group on vocabulary and 19.

(38) comprehension. Dowhower (1987) compared unassisted repeated reading and assisted repeated reading on 15 students. They focused four elements: reading rate, accuracy, comprehension, and prosody. The students were randomly assigned into two groups. Students in the assisted repeated reading group listened to the tapes while they were reading the basil readers, the textbooks used in. 政治大. schools for enhancing students’ reading abilities, without any assistance until. 立. they were confident to read along without assistance. The unassisted repeated. ‧ 國. 學. reading group reread the basil readers until they past the criteria of reading. ‧. rate. Both assisted and unassisted repeated reading improved students’. Nat. io. sit. y. reading rate, accuracy, comprehension and prosody gained improvements on. er. practiced and unpracticed readings. However, one thing worth noting is that. al. n. v i n C h reading outperformed the students in assisted repeated e n g c h i U the students in. unassisted repeated reading on prosody. Students in assisted listening-while-reading group read the reading with less improper phrases and with better intonation than students in the unassisted repeated readings (M. R. Kuhn & Stahl, 2003). In succession to Dowhower, Rasinski (1990) conducted a similar study to compare assisted and unassisted repeated readings. After the intervention, 20 20.

(39) third graders in both groups performed significantly better on reading rate and accuracy. However, there was no significance between the two treatments. Prosody was not administered. Rasinski (1990) concluded that both assisted or unassisted approaches aid learners reading rate and reading accuracy. With the audiotapes, the teacher can provide learners assistance easily. Therefore, assisted repeated reading is suggested due to that it is easier to. 政治大. implement listening-while-reading rather than traditional repeated reading. 立. approach without assistance.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Comparison of repeated reading and non-repeated reading. Nat. io. sit. y. Several studies (Homa, et al., 1993; M. Kuhn, 2004; O'Connor, et al., 2007). er. has been conducted to compare the effect of RR and Non-RR on improving L1. al. n. v i n C h fluency. Though and L2 /EFL students’ oral reading e n g c h i U repeated reading has been proved as one of the most effective approach on students’ reading fluency development, some drawbacks exist. Further, non-repeated reading approach has been widely applied in classrooms activities (M. R. Kuhn & Stahl, 2003).. Logan (1997) pointed out the benefits and drawbacks of repeated reading. Repeatedly practicing the same short passage helps students to achieve automatic reading. However, within the same short reading passage the stimuli 21.

(40) are restricted. Moreover, one concern of repeated reading is that repeatedly reading the same short passage may bore the learners and lower their motivation. On the contrary, during the same amount of reading time Non-RR allows readers to access more readings and wider range of reading text (O'Connor, et al., 2007). It provides readers with similar stimuli from different readings.. 政治大. Homan, Klesius and Hite’s (1993) compared the effect of repeated. 立. readings and assisted non-repeated readings on L1 below-grade-level young. ‧ 國. 學. readers’ reading fluency, three times a week, 7 weeks in total. The students. ‧. were randomly assigned to two different groups: repeated reading and. Nat. io. sit. y. assisted non-repeated reading. The RR group practiced traditional repeated. er. reading approach where the students did not received assistance when. al. n. v i n C hworking with their encountering an unknown words e n g c h i U peers. The Non-RR group practiced assisted reading approaches such as echo reading, unison reading, and cloze reading on different books. After the instruction, the results showed that the students in both treatments improved significantly on their reading rate, accuracy and comprehension. Nevertheless, the RR group did not outperform the Non-RR group in the three variables. It indicates that both RR and assisted Non-RR benefit students’ equivalently on reading rate, accuracy, and prosody. 22.

(41) Kuhn (2004) conducted a study which compared the effectiveness of assisted RR and assisted Non-RR and found out that both approaches assisted L1 learners’ oral reading fluency equally. Twenty-four second graders who are at the transitional stage to become fluent readers were randomly assigned to four groups: assisted repeated reading, wide reading, listening-only, and control group. The students in the assisted repeated. 政治大. reading group reread each of the six selected story four times with echo. 立. reading, choral reading, and partner reading. The wide reading group read. ‧ 國. 學. same six stories and 12 additional stories with echo reading and choral. ‧. reading alternatively used in each new story. The listening only group listened. Nat. io. sit. y. to the 18 stories without reading the texts. Results showed that both the. er. assisted repeated reading group and the wide reading group improved their. al. n. v i n prosody and word recognitionCsignificantly. only the wide h e n g cNevertheless, hi U reading group improved their comprehension.. Further, O’Connor, White, and Swanson (2007) made a comparison of assisted RR and assisted continuous reading on 37 with and without learning disabilities elementary students’ word identification, vocabulary, and reading rate. The students were randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group. The intervention included 15 minutes of assisted one-on-one 23.

(42) repeated reading or 15 minutes of assisted continuous reading without reread the passage. The experimental group demonstrated greater growth than the control group. However, no significant difference between the assisted RR and continuous reading treatments, which indicates that the assisted RR and continuous reading benefit the students equally in terms of reading fluency and comprehension.. 政治大. According to the findings that both the RR and Non-RR in L1 context. 立. improved students’ reading fluency similarly, some researchers (M. R. Kuhn &. ‧ 國. 學. Stahl, 2003; O'Connor, et al., 2007) have suggested that Non-RR reading may. ‧. be more beneficial than RR because students are exposed to more readings. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. during the same reading time.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Related studies in L2/ EFL context Despite emphasis on oral reading fluency is also emphasized in L2/ EFL emergent reading, experimental studies are relatively few in L2/EFL context through these years (Gorsuch & Taguchi, 2008; W. Grabe, 2010). Taguchi and his colleagues conducted a serious of studies (Gorsuch & Taguchi, 2008; Taguchi, 1997, 2002, 2004) examining the effect of silent repeated reading on EFL university students’ reading fluency. In one study, he 24.

(43) investigated the effectiveness of silent repeated reading on Japanese students’ silent reading rate and oral reading rate. The students were instructed to read silently with repeated reading. Results showed that though the participants’ silent reading rate improved after the treatment, it did not transfer to their oral reading rate. In another study, he compared extensive reading (ER) and repeated reading on EFL freshmen’s reading fluency and comprehension. The. 政治大. results showed that both ER and RR are beneficial approaches for increasing. 立. EFL students’ reading rate and comprehension (Taguchi, 2004). Accordingly,. ‧ 國. 學. he concluded that repeated reading is effective for EFL university learners,. ‧. especially for beginning level students. Likewise, Jeon’s (2009) study practiced. Nat. io. sit. y. repeated reading approach on Korean level two students. The results revealed. er. that the students’ oral reading rate raised and the improvements transferred to. al. n. v i n Cother unpracticed new passages. In words, repeated reading has been hen gchi U. indicated as an effective practice for L1 and L2/EFL learners’ reading fluency. While studies contrasting assisted repeated reading and non-repeated reading on beginners’ oral reading fluency demonstrated that Non-RR is as effective as RR in L1 context, little research exists in L2/EFL environment. Whether the research in L1 context can be generalized to L2/ EFL context is still questionable. Native speakers have already equipped with about 5,000 to 25.

(44) 7,000 vocabularies before receiving formal education, yet this is not the case for L2/ EFL students (Singer, 1981). For the L2/EFL students, most of the words are new for them, will non-repeated reading deliver similar effect as repeated reading is unknown. In addition, different orthographic systems, such as Chinese and English, may be a factor affecting L2/ EFL students’ learning reading (William Grabe, 1991). Consequently, there is a need for conducting a study in this regard.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 26. i n U. v.

(45) CHAPTER THREE. METHODOLOGY This study investigated the effect of repeated reading (RR) and non-repeated reading (Non-RR) on EFL elementary school students’ oral reading rate and accuracy rate. A quasi-authentic experiment was conducted to answer the research questions: 1.. 政治大. Is assisted non-repeated reading as effective as assisted repeated. 立. ‧ 國. 2.. 學. reading in improving EFL beginners’ reading rate and accuracy rate? Is there a significant difference between assisted repeated reading and. ‧. assisted non- repeated reading on higher-level readers’ reading rate and. sit. y. Nat. io. al. n. 3.. er. accuracy rate?. i n U. v. Is there a significant difference between assisted repeated reading and. Ch. engchi. assisted non-repeated reading on lower-level readers’ reading rate and accuracy rate? This section presents the methodology in four parts: participants, instrument, procedure, and data analysis.. 27.

(46) Participants The participants in this study were 59 fourth graders from two classes, aged from ten to eleven, studying in a public elementary school in downtown Taipei, northern Taiwan. They were instructed by the same teacher in grade three and four. These participants were selected for two following reasons. First, they were at a transitional stage in reading (Chall, 1983; Dowhower,. 政治大. 1987). Based on Chall’s stages of reading development (1983), students who. 立. can read words accurately but have not achieved automaticity and have to. ‧ 國. 學. deliberately decode words are transferring from reading stage 1 to stage 2, i.e.. ‧. from deliberately decoding to automatic reading. These participants had. y. Nat. er. io. sit. started formal English courses since the second grade. As second graders, they received one period of English class per week, forty minutes per class,. al. n. v i n C h sounds. As third focusing on letter names, and letter e n g c h i U graders, they had two. periods of English classes every week, emphasizing basic phonics skills and some daily dialogues. By the end of grade three, they were able to blend and decode some simple CVC words and had a word bank of about 100 words. Moving toward grade four, the participants had two periods of formal English classes and two periods of additional classes each week. They were expected to be able to read simple passages consisting of three to four short 28.

(47) sentences. This was the year they started to read from word lists to short passages. What they needed was to keep practicing and mastering their word recognition abilities by reading the stories they already knew or rereading the same passages (Chall, 1983). According to the instructor who worked with the participants since grade three, most of the participants were not able to read short decodable word and high frequency word list fluently. Instead, they. 政治大. usually chopped the sentences inappropriately because they had to make an. 立. effort to decode the words or recognize the high frequency words. Once they. ‧ 國. 學. had the automatic word recognition skills, they were able to read short. ‧. passages easily and shift their attention to the meaning of the texts. After. Nat. io. sit. y. acquired automatic reading, they were able to read for learning. Therefore,. n. al. er. fourth graders were selected as the participants, for they were transferring. Ch. engchi. from slow word decoding to automatic reading.. i n U. v. Second, according to the English teacher of the two classes, their English proficiency and learning motivation were very close. The two classes not only performed similar learning outcomes on the formative and summative English tests in grade three but also held positive motivation toward learning English. Both classes were interested in learning new things and enjoyed interacting with the instructor as well as their peers. 29.

(48) Instruments The instruments in this study include two sets of graded readers as reading materials, pretest and posttest materials, and scoring sheets.. Graded readers The target learning materials in this study were chosen from two different. 政治大. series of graded readers published by Scholastics: Scholastic Phonics. 立. Readers and Scholastic Sight Word Readers. Considering that the textbook. ‧ 國. 學. used by the participants was designed by topics with related vocabularies,. ‧. sentence patterns and dialogues but with very few readings, graded readers. y. Nat. er. io. sit. can meet the need for them to be exposed to connected and interesting texts. Scholastic Phonics Readers and Sight Word Readers have been proved as. al. n. v i n C h for beginning readers effective reading fluency materials (Slavin, Lake, engchi U. Chambers, Cheung, & Davis, 2009). Furthermore, the decision of selecting the two series as supplemental reading materials for fourth graders was made by all the English teachers in the participants’ school. The two sets of readers are short stories with colorful pictures enriching the context and topics relevant to students’ experiences. Both sets contain CD-ROM recorded by native speakers. The first set of selected readers, 30.

(49) Scholastic Phonics Readers, includes 72 books with difficulties gradually leveling up. Each book deals with different sound features. For example, readers 7 to 12 focus on the consonant ― m, l, t, s‖ and short vowels ―a and o‖ sound. Except for decodable sound features, the stories also contained high frequency words overlapped in each story. The second set of learning materials, Scholastic Sight Word Readers, contains 25 readers with similar. 政治大. difficulties. Each Sight Word Reader focuses on two different high frequency. 立. reader contains basic decodable words as well.. 學. ‧ 國. words, for example, ―are‖ and ―at‖ in book two. Meanwhile, each sight word. ‧. 16 Scholastic Phonics Readers were selected for both repeated reading. Nat. io. sit. y. (RR) and non-repeated reading (Non-RR) group, while 16 Scholastic Sight. er. Word Readers were selected for Non-RR group only, meeting the requirement. al. n. v i n C hlevel from 90% toU97% of accuracy rate. The of the participants’ instructional engchi book selection was carried on in the pilot study by the 12 randomly selected. fourth graders in the same school with the participants without participating in the main study. Based on the accuracy rate gained by the 12 students in the pilot study, Phonics Readers served as a reference for book selection. Phonics Readers 9 to 13 were within the students’ instructional level, while reader 14 was out of the students’ instructional level, i.e. below the readers’ 90% of 31.

(50) accuracy rate. Considering the feedback from the students in the pilot study and the requirement of the difficulty level within the students’ instructional level, reader 13 was selected as the first book for the present study. Because the intervention lasted for 16 weeks, Phonics Readers 13 to 28 were selected as their learning materials, adding up to 16 books. The similar procedures went with the 16 Sight Word Readers selection.. 政治大. Caldwelll (2007) claimed that reading materials can be leveled as follows:. 立. independent, instructional, and frustration level. The materials that students. ‧ 國. 學. can read with above 98% of accuracy rate are at the students’ independent. ‧. level, which students can work on by themselves. Materials with students’. Nat. io. sit. y. accuracy rate between 90% and 97% are within learners’ instructional level,. er. which means with appropriate support and guidance, readers can accomplish. al. n. v i n C hthan 90% of accuracy the job. However, materials less e n g c h i U rate are beyond. readers reading ability. Even with support, they still cannot comprehend the material. Reading below the instructional level might lead to struggle and frustration. In sum, Scholastic Phonics Readers 13 to 28 and the other 16 Scholastic Sight word readers (see Table 3.1) were preferred because they were designed for the beginning readers and the difficulty levels were within the participants’ instructional level. 32.

(51) Table 3.1 The 16 selected Phonics Readers and Sight Word Readers Scholastic Phonics Readers Weeks (for RR and Non-RR groups). Scholastic Sight Word Readers (for Non-RR group). 1. book 13. I, see. 2. book 14. up, down. 3. book 15. my, can. 4. book 16. me, too. 5. book 17. here, are. 6. book 18. little, big. 7. book 19. that, pretty. 8. book 20. 9. book 21. 10. book 22. 立 book 23 book 24. they, go. book 25. will, fly. book 26. did, it. book 27. run, said. book 28. we, get. y. Nat. 16. help, at. io. sit. 15. find, the. ‧. 14. ride, on. n. al. er. 13. play, with. 學. 12. ‧ 國. 11. 政治大. Pretest and posttest materials. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The last Phonics Reader, reader 28, was presented as the pretest as well as the posttest material. The texts of reader 28 were copied on white A4-size sheets with larger font and without pictures attached. When being recorded at pretest and posttest, the students read the sheet instead of the book to avoid orthographic affect. In order to help students associate the meaning with the words, some of the decodable words in the Phonics Readers are printed with small pictures right above the words. If the students read the book while 33.

(52) assessing, it is unknown whether they sound out the words because of their reading skills or because of the trace of the pictures. Therefore, in the pretest and posttest, the students read the passage on the sheet without the presence of the pictures.. Scoring system. 政治大. The scoring system of oral reading fluency was based on the DIBELS. 立. accuracy and fluency scoring system. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early. ‧ 國. 學. Literacy Skills (DIBELS) is a standardized assessment assessing K-6 learners’. ‧. five literacy skills: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and. Nat. io. sit. y. fluency, vocabulary, as well as comprehension. DIBELS is widely adopted by. er. teachers and researchers to assess students’ oral reading fluency due to the. al. n. v i n C h proved adequate easy administration and empirically e n g c h i U procedure. (Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., Walz, L., & Germann, G., 1993; Shinn, 1989; National Reading Panel, 2000). In the fluency and accuracy assessment, two scores were assessed: the oral reading rate and the accuracy rate (see Table 3.1). The oral reading rate was scored to understand the participants’ reading speed, while the accuracy rate was scored to understand whether the students decrease their miscues 34.

(53) after the intervention. The oral reading rate was based on the words per minute (WPM) the participant read with error words subtracted. The accuracy rate was gained through the total accurate words divided by the total words read (see Table 3.1).. Table 3.2 Scoring system Reading rate. 立. (WPM). 學. ‧ 國. Timed for One minute. 治政 total words大 read– error words= reading rate total words read – error words. Accuracy rate. X100 = accuracy rate. Nat. er. io. sit. y. ‧. total words read. Based on the DIBELS scoring system, self-corrected words, insert words,. al. n. v i n C h correct. However, and repeated words were counted e n g c h i U mispronounced words,. omitted words and change of word order were incorrect. If a students struggles in a word over three seconds, it was demonstrated but the word would be slashed as incorrect on the examiner’s sheet (see Table 3.2 for samples of scoring).. 35.

(54) Table 3.3 Sample of scoring. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Procedure. Ch. i n U. v. The entire procedure of the present study consisted of three parts: the. engchi. pilot study, the main study including the pretest, the16-week intervention, and the posttest, as well as data analysis (See Figure 3.1). In this session, the following procedures were implemented: (1) the pilot study; (2) the main study; (3) the accessing procedure; (4) teaching procedure; and (5) data analysis.. 36.

(55) Pilot study To justify the appropriateness of the procedures of the main study, the pilot study was carried out for four periods of classes in one week, adding up to 160 minutes. The students were 12 randomly selected fourth graders from the same school who did not take part in the main study. The procedures and instrument followed the main study except that the students read fewer. 政治大. readers than the participants in the main study because of the shorter period. 立. of treatment. The six students in the RR group read four Scholastic Phonics. ‧ 國. 學. Readers, while the other six students in the Non-RR group read four. ‧. Scholastic Phonics Readers and four Scholastic Sight Word Readers.. Nat. io. sit. y. Before the four reading classes, the students in the pilot study first helped. er. select readers meeting their instructional reading level. During the four weeks,. al. n. v i n C hreaders 13 to 16 U the instruction covered Phonics e n g c h i and the first four Sight Word Readers. Phonics Reader 16 was presented as the pretest and posttest material for the 12 students in the pilot study.. Overall, the students from the two groups improved their reading rate and accuracy rate after the pilot study. The RR group improved their WPM from 63.5 to 82.5 words, while the Non-RR group gained growth from 66.5 to 80.67 words. The RR group’s accuracy rate was 90.16 in the pretest and 95.12 in the 37.

(56) posttest, whereas the Non-RR group’s accuracy rate was 89.73 in the pretest and 94.92 in the posttest (See Table 3.4). As a consequence, the procedure of the pilot study was considered an appropriate framework for the following main study.. Table 3.4. 政治大. Statistics and Independent Samples t-test of the Pilot Study. Non-RR. (n=6). (n=6). ‧. t. p. 26.73. y. -.209. .839. 11.94. er. .068. .947. 19.84. .17. .867. 6.04. .063. .951. M. SD. 63.50. 22.83. 66.50. Accuracy rate 90.16. 10.16. 89.73. io. n. al. WPM. Ch. 82.50. i U e17.12 n g c h80.67. sit. SD. Nat. M. WPM Pretest. RR. 學. ‧ 國. 立. v ni. Postest Accuracy rate 95.12. 5.11. 94.92. P>.05. Based on the pilot study, two teaching procedures were added in the main study. First, the importance of reading prosody was needed to be mentioned. The researcher found that if prosody was overlooked, the students only emphasized on the speed which very often made their reading obscured and 38.

(57) unnatural. Second, some difficult words should be taught before reading, especially the high frequency words that cannot be decoded, such as ―said and here‖.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 39. i n U. v.

(58) Figure 3.1 Procedure of the Study Pilot Study. Pre-test: oral reading rate and accuracy rate (Material: Scholastic Phonics Reader 28). Repeated reading (RR). 立. Procedures:. . Procedures. 學. ‧ 國. . 政治Non-repeated 大 reading (Non-RR) Echo reading once→. Partner reading five times. Partner reading twice. (Each participant read 5 times/. (Each participant read 2 times/ per. 1.. Scholastic Phonics Readers. n. al. Ch. . Learning Materials:. 1.. Scholastic Phonics Readers. er. io. Learning Materials:. sit. book.). . 13 to 28. y. Nat. per book.). ‧. Echo reading twice→. i n U. v. e n g c h i 13 to 28 2.. Scholastic Sight Word Readers 1 to 16. A 16-week intervention Posttest: oral reading rate and accuracy rate (Material: Scholastic Phonics Reader 28). Data analysis. 40.

(59) Main study A pretest was first administrated to ensure that the oral reading rate and accuracy rate of the two classes were homogeneous. Meanwhile, students whose reading rates were the top half in both groups were classified as higher-level readers, while students scoring on the bottom half were classified as lower-level readers. Next, there was a 16-week intervention, 40 minutes per. 政治大. week, from September 2010 to January 2011. The two classes were randomly. 立. assigned to two different treatments: the RR and Non-RR groups. Every week,. ‧ 國. 學. the RR group read one selected Scholastic Phonics Reader with assisted. ‧. repeated reading approaches, while the Non-RR group shared the same. Nat. io. sit. y. Phonics Reader and read one additional selected Sight Word Reader with. er. assisted non-repeated reading approaches. During the 16 weeks, both RR and. al. n. v i n C hPhonics ReadersUfrom 13 to 28 in order. After non-RR groups read Scholastic engchi the last intervention class, the posttest was carried on immediately after the intervention to measure the progress of the RR and Non-RR groups’ reading. rate and accuracy rate during the 16 weeks. Lastly, the data collected from the pretest and posttest was analyzed qualitativelly with independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test by SPSS.. 41.

(60) The assessing procedure When administering the oral reading fluency test, every examinee was assessed individually. Both the participant and the examiner as the researcher had one A4-size examiner sheet of the reading passage from Scholastic Phonics Reader 28.The participant could not see the running record on the researcher’s copy. As soon as the examiner timed for one minute and said,. 政治大. ―Start,‖ the participant began to read. At the end of one minute, the examiner. 立. ended the assessment by saying, ―Stop,‖ and put a bracket right after the last. ‧ 國. 學. word produced by the examinee. Each participant’s oral reading fluency. ‧. assessment was recorded by a pen recorder for later analysis of reading rate. Nat. io. sit. y. and accuracy rate by the other scorer. One third of the data was scored by the. n. al. er. researcher and another experienced English teacher to ensure the inter-rater reliability.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Teaching procedure The teaching procedures for both the RR and Non-RR groups were the same, except for the repeating times on the same text and the variety of reading texts. Each student in RR group read the same Scholastic Phonics Reader for five times, while every student in Non-RR read it only twice and 42.

(61) repeated all the procedures for the second book, Sight Word Reader, in one class. Hence, during the same reading time, every student read similar amount of texts. The students were instructed with assisted reading approaches, echo reading and partner reading. These two approaches were chosen because the first approach, echo reading, provided a reading model for students to imitate. 政治大. the pronunciation and prosody from the model, and the second one, partner. 立. more interesting and meaningful to them.. 學. ‧ 國. reading, provided chances to interact with their peers, which made reading. ‧. To ensure that reading comprehension and prosody was not neglected,. Nat. io. sit. y. the researcher told the students the importance of reading rate, reading. er. comprehension and prosody before the intervention. They were instructed that. al. n. v i n C h fast, and withUprosody. While reading fast, a good reader can read accurately, engchi they had to maintain the intonation, expression, and comprehension as well. The teaching procedures were presented in three sessions: (a) before. reading, (b) during reading, and (c) after reading (See figure 3.2). The first one was intended for the participants to associate their background knowledge and learning experiences with the book they were going to read. The During-reading session was the time for the students in RR and Non-RR to 43.

(62) read the reader with different treatments. Session C included some following activities after the reading. In session a, before reading, the researcher as the instructor first directed the participants’ attention to the book title and previewed the pictures in the book for them to make some predictions. Then, it was in the pretest that the students paired with their peers themselves and recorded each other’s reading. 政治大. time and errors on the self-monitor record for each other.. 立. In session b, during reading, the students read the readers with two. ‧ 國. 學. assisted approaches, echo reading and paired reading. Dowhower (1987). ‧. suggested that when applying repeated reading, the ideal number of repetition. Nat. io. sit. y. is between three and five times. Therefore students in RR treatment read each. n. al. er. book five times, while the students in Non-RR group read the each book only two times.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The whole class first echoed with either the CD-ROM or the instructor sentence by sentence. The RR group echoed the reading twice, while the Non-RR group echoed the reading just once. Next was paired reading when the students were paired randomly. Two partners took turns to start reading one sentence each time, which means in each partner reading, every participant only read half of the book. The RR group followed paired reading 44.

(63) for four times and partners chorally read the whole story chorally for the fifth time. In sum, every participant in RR group read the same short passage twice in echo reading and three times in paired reading, summing up to five repetitions on the same book. On the other hand, each student in Non-RR group followed paired reading just twice. Hence, every participant in Non-RR group read the same short passage once in echo reading and once in paired. 政治大. reading, adding up to two repetitions on the same book.. 立. In the last session, after reading, some detailed comprehension questions. ‧ 國. 學. were discussed. Then, it was the posttest. The students took turns to time their. ‧. partner’s reading. Words read per minute and miscues they made were. Nat. io. sit. y. recorded on their own self-monitor sheet. The self-monitor records were not for. er. the data collection; instead, they were for the students to monitor their own. al. n. v i n C h the Non-RR group progress. After the Phonics reader, e n g c h i U read another Sight Word Reader following sessions a, b, and c.. 45.

(64) Figure 3.2 Procedure of the Study. a. Before Reading 1. Previewing the book 2. Pretest (Students timed for their partners.). b. During Reading Non-RR 治 1. Echo reading 政大once 2. 立 Paired reading twice. RR twice. 學. ‧ 國. five times. Each student read. Each student read. 2 times/ a book. ‧. 5 times/ a book. sit. y. Nat. io. 1. Detailed comprehension questions. n. al. er. c. After Reading. 2. Posttest (Students timed C hfor their partners.)U n i engchi. 46. v. Repeat sessions a, b, c for the Sight Word Reader.

(65) Data analysis This study aims to answer the three research questions: (1) Is assisted non-repeated reading as effective as assisted repeated reading in improving EFL beginners’ reading rate and accuracy rate? (2) Is there a significant difference between assisted repeated reading and assisted non- repeated reading on higher-level readers’ reading rate and accuracy rate? (3) Is there a. 政治大. significant difference between assisted repeated reading and assisted non-. 立. repeated reading on lower-level readers’ reading rate and accuracy rate?. ‧ 國. 學. Prior to the intervention, two tests were administered to ascertain that the. ‧. two groups were homogeneous. First, Levene’s test was applied to examine. y. Nat. er. io. sit. the different population in the two groups was not a variance to the study. Second, independent samples t-test was administered to compare the mean. al. n. v i n C h rate and readingUaccuracy rate to assure that scores of the two groups’ reading engchi the two groups were on the same reading fluency level. After the intervention, paired samples t-test and independent samples t-test were applied to answer the three research questions. Paired samples t-test was carried on to realize the progress each group made after the intervention. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the two groups’ reading rate and accuracy rate on the posttest. 47.

(66) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 48. i n U. v.