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A Reading Instruction Intervention Program for English-Language Learners Who Are Struggling Readers

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

William L. Heward

The Ohio State University, USA

Mary Anne Heng

National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, maheng{at}nie.edu.sg

We used a multiple baseline across students design to evaluate the effects of an intervention program consisting of vocabulary instruction, error correction, and fluency building on oral reading rate and comprehension of five English-language learners who were struggling readers in a primary school. During the first intervention condition (new passage each session), the first author (a) explained the meanings of new vocabulary words from the session's passage, used each vocabulary word in a sentence, and asked the learner to use each word in a sentence; (b) corrected oral reading errors during the learner's initial oral reading of the passage; (c) asked the learner to read the passage as fast as she or he could for three consecutive trials; and (d) asked five literal comprehension questions about the passage. The same procedures were used during the second intervention condition (same passage to criterion), except the same passage was used across sessions until the learner reached a predetermined number of words read correctly per minute. During the new passage each session condition, the oral reading rate of all five learners showed marked improvements over their performance during baseline. During the same passage to criterion condition, four of five learners reached the predetermined fluency criterion of 100 correct words per minute. The mean number of comprehension questions answered correctly per session was notably higher during both intervention conditions than during baseline.

The Journal of Special Education, Vol. 40, No. 2, 79-93 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/00224669060400020401


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