Reading fluency is an important subskill of reading. It is connected with reading comprehension and general students’ achievements.
The Eurydice (2011) study results point to the fact that immigrant children are less successful in reading than non-immigrant children from the hosting country. Teaching reading skills to children, whose mother tongue is not the language of instruction is one of the major tasks of education. As a consequence, the improvement of reading fluency is particularly important with bilingual students and students with reading disability.
The main goal of the research was to discover the impact of good teaching practice and reading fluency training on monolingual and bilingual students in year three at primary school level.
The whole sample comprised 145 third graders. They were subdivided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group consisted of 79 monolingual and bilingual students. The experimental group consisted of a subsample of 13 students with reading disabilities, of the latter 5 monolingual and 8 bilingual students.
66 monolingual and bilingual students formed the control group. In the control group the subsample included 9 students with reading disabilities, of the latter 4 were monolingual and 5 were bilingual students. Two measurements were carried out in both groups. They focused on assessment of reading skills in autumn and spring term. Both the experimental and the control group did not differ in reading skills at the beginning.
The experimental group partook in good teaching practice, the subsample further participated also in a 17-hours training for the development of reading fluency which took place two times a week. The control group was not involved in any of these teaching practices.
In order to assess the reading skills of students in the experimental and control groups before and after lessons comprising good teaching practice a standardized measuring tool was used Ocenjevalna shema bralnih zmožnosti učenca za 3. razred (OSBZ-3) (Assessment grid for reading skills for third graders), which is used to assess the reading skills of students and to identify students who do not reach the
minimum reading standards. The version OSBZ-3 was used (Z-version at the beginning and K-version at the end of the school year).
The research method applied was quantitative. Furthermore, the descriptive and causal nonexperimental research methods were used.
The assessment of the influence of good teaching practice on the speed of oral reading as a reading fluency indicator has concluded that the experimental and control groups did not show any statistical differences. In assessing the influence of good teaching practice on other reading subskills, like reading comprehension, phonological skills and motivation for reading, it has been concluded that the experimental group showed a statistical improvement in reading comprehension. In other reading subskills (phonological skills, motivation for reading) no statistically relevant differences have been perceived.
The assessment of good teaching practice and the training for the development of reading fluency (henceforth GTP and TDRF) of students with reading disabilities has concluded that the students in the subsample studied have statistically improved their overall reading skills in comparison with the subsample of the control group who have even deteriorated their reading skills.
The subsample of monolingual third graders with reading disabilities who were involved in GTP and TDRF has demonstrated a major joint difference in their reading skills between the second and first assessments than the students in the same subsample control group.
The subsample of bilingual third graders with reading disabilities who were involved GTP and TDRF the median of the difference between the second and the first assessments in their joint reading skills results was positive, whereas the subsample of the control group even had a negative joint difference.
The results show a progress of monolingual and bilingual students with reading disabilities who were involved in GTP and TDRF. However, the hypothesis could not be statistically proven due to a scanty number of subsamples.
The findings of the empirical research of boosting fluent reading with the aid of GTP and TDRF will have a considerable contribution to a better understanding of the development of fluent reading in bilingual students and the influence of GTP and TDRF on the reading skills of this vulnerable group. The training will aid special
education pedagogues in planning and implementing activities to advance reading fluency and reading comprehension.
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