A Comparison of Repeated Reading and Listening While Reading to Increase Oral Reading Fluency in Children

Oral reading fluency is crucial to successful reading comprehension. Difficulties to effectively read aloud with fluency often pose challenges to develop more complex reading skills. Although there exists research on teaching oral reading fluency using repeated readings, there is limited research on the effectiveness of listening while reading with error correction procedures for children struggling with reading. Using a single-case, alternating treatments design, this research evaluated the effectiveness of repeated readings with word rehearsal when compared to listening while reading with error correction on the number of words read correctly per minute for three 2nd graders who struggled with reading. In addition, silent reading was assessed as a control condition in this study. The results of this research indicated an acceleration in the correct number of words read as a result of practice, as well as a deceleration of incorrect words read, overall, for both reading interventions. Listening while reading with error correction and repeated reading with word rehearsal did not seem produce a larger effect than the other. However, the implementation of silent reading resulted in both correct and incorrect words accelerating. This may suggest that silent reading may not be as effective as repeated reading and listening while reading. Furthermore, best-quality reading instruction appears to need some form of corrective feedback (e.g., error correction or word rehearsal) to obtain best outcomes for students.