Reading speed and reading comprehension: A missing link?

Abstract

Reading speed is linked to reading comprehension. While struggling readers read laboriously in their effort to identify words, good readers who read rapidly, accurately and effortlessly are able to utilize their cognitive resources to aid comprehension.This study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of using repeated reading (RR) strategy on reading accuracy of Malaysian lower secondary school students using the curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedure (Deno, 1985, 2003). The single subject experimental design (SSED) was used to investigate the effects of the RR strategy on five lower secondary struggling readers’ reading speed as measured by the percentage of word decoding (%WCPM). Data was over a period of 12 weeks and their initial and final reading %WCPM was charted on a line graph. The visual results from the line graphs were used to compare the student’s individual progress within case as well as across cases.The one-way repeated measures ANOVA procedure was conducted to compare scores of accuracy at Time 1 (baseline prior to intervention), Time 2 (4th week after intervention), Time 3(8th week after intervention) and Time 4 (12th week after intervention).The findings showed that the RR strategy was an effective instrument in enhancing the participants reading rates as measured in %WCPM.