ERIC Number: EJ796714
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Jun
Pages: 26
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0346-251X
EISSN: N/A
Repeated Reading for Developing Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: The Case of EFL Learners in Vietnam
Gorsuch, Greta; Taguchi, Etsuo
System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, v36 n2 p253-278 Jun 2008
Reading in a foreign or second language is often a laborious process, often caused by underdeveloped word recognition skills, among other things, of second and foreign language readers. Developing fluency in L2/FL reading has become an important pedagogical issue in L2 settings and one major component of reading fluency is fast and accurate word recognition. Repeated reading (RR) was devised by Samuels [Samuels, S.J. (1979). "The method of repeated readings." "The Reading Teacher" 32, 403-408] to develop reading fluency in English L1 readers, and instantiate Automaticity Theory [LaBerge, D., Samuels, S.J., 1974. "Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading." "Cognitive Psychology" 6, 293-323] in practice. In RR, readers read a simplified text repeatedly to help automatize word recognition, leaving more cognitive resources for higher order comprehension processes. RR used in FL settings is a more rare practice; studies show RR increases FL learners' reading fluency but not necessarily their comprehension, possibly due to poor comprehension test instrumentation. This report describes an 11-week quasi-experimental RR study carried out with university-level Vietnamese learners of English using improved reading comprehension testing procedures. Results suggest that the experimental group (n = 24) gained in reading fluency, and comprehended significantly more than the control group (n = 26). The results have implications for future uses of RR in FL contexts, future reading comprehension test design, and the need for measurement of working memory during short- and long-term use of RR. The results also imply a need for further study of a persistent but unsupported belief in FL settings that simply increasing language proficiency guarantees reading fluency and that word recognition and fluency need not be developed as skills. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)
Descriptors: Experimental Groups, Control Groups, Reading Comprehension, Reading Fluency, Word Recognition, Memory, Foreign Countries, Cognitive Psychology, Reading Tests, Second Language Learning, College Students, Vietnamese People, Language Proficiency
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A