Use of Repeated Reading to Improve Reading Fluency

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Use of Repeated Reading to Improve Reading Fluency

Education is one of the essential factors that contribute to the creation of a sustainable society. For education to deliver its objectives, it is essential that the components of instruction, which include phonics, vocabulary, text comprehension, fluency, and phonemic awareness are met. Most importantly, the method of curriculum used to facilitate the realization of these aspects has to take into consideration the diverse needs of the learners (Fredrick & Hummel, 2004). Often times, a significant proportion of the students experience difficulties in learning even the most basic reading skills. As reported by Therrien (2004), at least one in every five students have challenges with reading acquisition. This rate is higher for students with reading disabilities who have to undergo significant challenges with reading as they progress with their school careers and into their adulthood (Therrien, 2004). Reading challenges have an adverse effect on the academic achievement of most of the learners. As asserted by Connor (2016), such students take much time trying to make meaning of contexts, which hinders their rate of learning. Consequently, it is critical that effective instructional methods are embraced in order to ensure that reading problems among the students are addressed for their academic success. Therefore, this essay presents an analysis of the use of repeated reading as a strategy to improve fluency in reading among learners with or without reading disabilities.

Discussion

Repeated reading is one of the educational interventions that is used to enhance the reading fluency in students who are experiencing reading challenges. It is an intervention that has been proven to be effective in enhancing fluency in students with and without disabilities in various levels of learning that include elementary, middle, and secondary school levels.  This reading strategy motivates the improvement of prosody by promoting the accurate teaching of methods used by fluent readers alongside stimulating phrase boundaries (Ruskey, 2011). Through it, the non-fluent learners develop automatic skills used in word identification, which in turn enhances their abilities to comprehend contexts. In contrast, reading fluency is not just the speed of reading but also a combination of aspects that include phrasing, expression, pacing, comprehension, and intonation (Diller, 2007). It also refers to the ability of the reader to recognize words and use them to make a meaning of the texts presented to them. Additionally, Allington (2012) considers it as a term that comprises of component skills, which include prosody of reading a text orally, automatic recognition of words, and accurate decoding of words.

Repeated reading is one of the key strategies that is used by educationists to promote reading fluency among their learners. In this approach, non-fluent learners are required to read a passage severally. They are not expected to proceed to the next passage if the desired fluency level in reading has not been achieved. As a result, it is critical that teachers select reading passages that match with the reading levels of the learners with reading challenges. The use of this approach is highly effective because when students read the same passage severally, their reading rate increases alongside an improvement in their expression orally (Boyle & Scanlon, 2009). Additionally, the errors in word identification decline, leading to the improvement in their overall fluency in reading.

For fluent reading to be achieved, it is important that four components of the whole process have to be taken into consideration. As asserted by Therrien and Kubina (2006) in their article, the first component is determining whether students have the skills that are necessary for the use of this strategy. Accordingly, repeated reading is highly effective for students who can read between a first and third-grade level of instruction. It might also prove beneficial to learners aiming at building their fluency despite being at deficiency stage. The second component is the need for the teachers to choose the most effective format for delivering repeated reading to the learners. According to educational evidence, repeated reading can be conducted as a combination of whole-class activity and a pull-out program or interventional session. Peer-tutoring can also be used to facilitate reading fluency among the learners. The third component entails implementing the essential components of the instruction where the teacher determines the best ways in which repeated learning can be delivered. When implementing this strategy, three things should be done; firstly, the non-fluent learners should read loudly the passages to the teacher, secondly, the teacher should give corrective feedback, and lastly, passages should be re-read until the expected performance criteria are achieved (Therrien & Kubina, 2006). In addition, modeling should be used where the teacher reads the passage to the students before having them to read it (Therrien, 2004). The last component of repeated reading instruction is selecting the most appropriate reading materials for the learners and obtaining additional supplies to supplement their reading skills (Therrien & Kubina, 2006). As asserted earlier, factors such as the relevance of the materials to the reading level of the learners need to be taken into consideration when selecting the reading materials. Therefore, considering these components translate into the enhanced effectiveness of repeated reading in improving reading fluency among non-fluent readers.

Repeated reading facilitates fluency in many ways. As asserted by Rasinski (2010), it helps non-fluent readers to recall or remember facts from the content they have just read. It also helps them in focusing on a specific reading issue and remember higher level, important information (Rasinski, 2010). These benefits can be seen in a systematic review performed by Strickland, Boon, and Spencer (2013) where it was found that repeated reading not only improves non-fluent learners’ reading fluency but also their comprehension skills too. Similar assertions can be seen in a study by Cotter (2012) where repeated reading increased the reading comprehension of five students who practiced its use. Findings reported by Chang and Millett (2013) in their study demonstrated that the rate of reading among 13 foreign language students who were exposed to repeated reading strategy increased to 47 and 45 words per minute when compared to 13 and seven words for 13 students who did not practice repeated reading.  Furthermore, the study revealed that the rate of improvement in comprehension in the group of students who were exposed to repeated reading improved to a rate between 19% and 17% while that of those who did not participate in repeated reading was found to be between 3% and 5% (Chang & Millett, 2013). Gil et al., (2017) found out that repeated reading can improve free speech pronunciation among non-fluent learners. Therefore, it can be concluded that repeated reading helps in improving comprehension, speech pronunciation and recall in both fluent and non-fluent learners is justified.

Repeated reading is also associated with the benefit of helping non-fluent and fluent students to remember most important information from the texts they read (Nairne, 2014). They can easily recall information that includes main ideas and vocabularies in unfamiliar as well as technical materials, which contribute to the improvement in their overall problem-solving skills. Their abilities in recalling most important information are attributed to the fact that learning in repeated reading takes place without or little cognitive efforts of the students. The fact that this strategy stresses the realization of four aspects of reading, which include speed, autonomy, lack of one’s conscious awareness and effortless reading imply that students grasp all the needed information with minimum effort (Kamil et al., 2011), hence, their ability to use it to make abstract and sound decisions.

Repeated reading is also associated with the benefit of enhanced word recognition with high accuracy. In this case, it helps the non-fluent readers to decode words accurately within a short period of time in order to gain fluency. Their automaticity in the recognition of words also increases with the use of repeated reading (McGill-Franzen & Allington, 2010). According to Wexler et al., (2010), these benefits are achievable with the use of repeated reading since students are exposed to a wide range of text structure, topics, and broader vocabulary, which enhance their reading accuracy.

The efficacy of repeated reading in enhancing the reading fluency among non-fluent learners has been documented in studies. For example, a systematic review of literature performed by Lee and Yoon (2017) using 34 intervention studies on repeated reading demonstrated that this strategy has significant positive outcomes when used in children with reading disabilities. As asserted by them, repeated reading increases their accuracy in word decoding, comprehension, recall, and enhanced problem-solving. The authors recommend that the outcomes can be improved if other interventions such as listening to a passage review are incorporated into repeated reading in learners with reading disabilities (Lee & Yoon, 2017). However, Wexler et al., (2010), found in their study that there was no statistical significance between the outcomes of repeated reading strategy, wide reading and typical instruction in learners that had severe learning disabilities. Therefore, they recommend that the use of repeated reading intervention should incorporate explicit and direct instruction in word as well as text-level skills in order to enhance the reading skills among learners with reading disabilities (Wexler et al., 2010). A quasi-experimental research that was conducted by Yeganeh (2013) revealed that the use of repeated learning in the experimental group resulted in more improvements in comprehension skills and reading fluency when compared to the control group. Finally, a study conducted by Hawkins et al., (2011) showed that the use of repeated reading strategy alongside vocabulary-previewing interventions led to an improvement in reading fluency and comprehension among struggling high school students. Based on these studies, it is evident that repeated reading is an effective intervention that can be used to improve reading fluency among non-fluent readers with or without any reading disabilities.

It is worth noting that there are ways in which the efficacy of repeated reading can be improved. One of them is the use of principles of precision reading. The desired reading behavior among the learners can be achieved if specific factors of precision reading are taken into consideration. They include increasing the readers’ phonemic awareness, their visual perceptual behaviors, language and listening, and their reading behavior. In phonemic awareness, the readers should be supported in order to develop their abilities to manipulate phonemes fluently, segment and blend sounds, and being able to differentiate the different sounds. Readers’ perceptual behavior encompass their ability to automatically name symbols, written letters, and objects in a specific sequence. For these to be achieved, the readers should demonstrate competencies in coordinating their visual and auditory perceptual behaviors, which in turn underpin the effectiveness of repeated reading. Finally, the reading behaviors of the learners should match with the language of instruction being used to facilitate their reading fluency. If these are considered, success of reading behaviors, in terms of word fluency, passage fluency, vocabulary, and abstract thinking will be achieved. Therefore, precision reading can be incorporated into repeated reading in order to enhance the reading abilities of non-fluent learners.

Conclusion

Overall, repeated reading is an effective intervention that can be used to improve reading fluency among students. It is effective for all kinds of learners irrespective of their learning abilities. The strategy improves fluency by increasing reading speed, word recognition, accuracy of word identification, recall of important information, and students’ ability to use ideas from a reading in making abstract decisions. It is worth noting that the approaches used to facilitate learning in repeated reading for learners with disabilities and those without varies significantly. Therefore, aspects such as incorporating listening to a passage preview prior to actual reading and explicit instruction in word reading should be considered when using this strategy in learners with reading disabilities.

 

 

References

Allington, R. L. (2011). What really matters for struggling readers: Designing research-based       programs. Boston: Pearson Higher Ed.

Boyle, J., & Scanlon, D. (2009). Methods and strategies for teaching students with mild      disabilities: A case-based approach. Cengage Learning.

Chang, A. C., & Millett, S. (2013). Improving reading rates and comprehension through timed     repeated reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25(2), 126.

Connor, C. M. (Ed.). (2016). The cognitive development of reading and reading comprehension.   New York: Routledge.

Cotter, J. (2012). Understanding the relationship between reading fluency and reading      comprehension: Fluency strategies as a focus for instruction.

Diller, D. (2007). Making the most of small groups: Differentiation for all. Portland: Stenhouse      Publishers.

Fredrick, L. D., & Hummel, J. H. (2004). Reviewing the outcomes and principles of effective       instruction. In Evidence-based educational methods (pp. 9-22).

Gil, I. R., de Larios, J. R., & Balibrea, Y. C. (2017). The Effect of Repeated Reading on the         Pronunciation of Young EFL Learners. Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de     didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras, (27), 7-19.

Hawkins, R. O., Hale, A., Sheeley, W., & Ling, S. (2011). Repeated reading and vocabulary‐       previewing interventions to improve fluency and comprehension for struggling high‐    school readers. Psychology in the Schools, 48(1), 59-77.

Kamil, M. L., Pearson, P. D., Moje, E. B., & Afflerbach, P. (Eds.). (2011). Handbook of reading research (Vol. 4). New York: Routledge.

Lee, J., & Yoon, S. Y. (2017). The effects of repeated reading on reading fluency for students     with reading disabilities: A meta-analysis. Journal of learning disabilities, 50(2), 213-      224.

McGill-Franzen, A., & Allington, R. L. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of research on reading disabilities. New York: Routledge.

Nairne, J. S. (2014). Psychology. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth.

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Therrien, W. J. (2004). Fluency and comprehension gains as a result of repeated reading: A           meta-analysis. Remedial and special education, 25(4), 252-261.

Rasinski, T. V. (2010). The fluent reader: Oral & silent reading strategies for building fluency,       word recognition & comprehension. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Ruskey, N. (2011). Increasing fluency using repeated reading (Doctoral dissertation, University    of Wisconsin–Stout).

Strickland, W. D., Boon, R. T., & Spencer, V. G. (2013). The effects of repeated reading on the   fluency and comprehension skills of elementary-age students with learning disabilities   (LD), 2001-2011: A review of research and practice. Learning Disabilities: A             Contemporary Journal, 11(1), 1-33.

Wexler, J., Vaughn, S., Roberts, G., & Denton, C. A. (2010). The efficacy of repeated reading     and wide reading practice for high school students with severe reading            disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 25(1), 2-10.

Yeganeh, M. T. (2013). Repeated Reading Effect on Reading Fluency and Reading          Comprehension in Monolingual and Bilingual EFL Learners. Procedia-Social and        Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1778-1786.

 

 

 

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