An investigation of listening and listening-while-reading accommodations on reading comprehension levels and rates in students with emotional disorders

Abstract

Researchers used alternating treatment designs to investigate the effects of listening-whilereading (LWR) and listening interventions on comprehension levels and rates in four middle school students with emotional disorders. During LWR, students were instructed to read passages silently along with experimenters. During the listening condition, we did not give students a printed copy of the passage but merely instructed them to listen as an experimenter read the passages aloud. The control condition consisted of students reading passages silently. After each condition, students answered 10 comprehension questions without referring back to the printed passage. Although neither intervention resulted in comprehension levels consistently superior to those of the silent reading control condition, LWR and listening resulted in higher rates of comprehension than the silent reading control condition across all four students. However, listening appeared to improve reading comprehension rates in only two students. These results suggest that LWR may be an efficient procedure for enhancing comprehension across content areas with groups of students who have heterogeneous reading skills. The discussion focuses on future applied research with students with disabilities.

Using the TELLS prereading procedure to enhance comprehension levels and rates in secondary students

“…Acceptability measures confirmed these informal reports. If TELLS enhances comprehension only on text to which it is applied, then researchers should conduct comparison studies to determine if other previewing procedures (e.g., listening-while-reading) are more efficient and effective instructional strategies for enhancing comprehension on specific passages (see Hale et al, 2005, andWinn et al, 2006). The time spent engaged in TELLS, however, may be time well spent if TELLS causes meaningful increases in reading comprehension skills that enhance students' comprehension rates across texts.…”

“…Researchers have shown that procedures designed to enhance oral reading speed or fluency (reinforcement, listening-while-reading, and repeated readings) also enhance reading comprehension rates (Freeland et al, 1999Hale et al, 2005;McDaniel et al, 2001;Skinner et al, 1993;Winn, Skinner, Oliver, Hale, & Ziegler, 2006). Researchers, however, have not used reading comprehension rate measures to evaluate procedures designed to enhance reading comprehension.…”

“…; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) than reading comprehension level (i.e., percentage of comprehension questions answered correctly). Using within-subjects, repeated-measures designs researchers have found that reading comprehension rate measures were stable and sensitive enough to detect changes in reading skills occasioned by accommodations and remedial procedures (Freeland, Jackson, & Skinner, 1999;Hale et al, 2005;McDaniel et al, 2001).…”

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Combined Reading Interventions on Improving Oral Reading Fluency of Students with Reading Disabilities

“…There are several possible reasons for these intervention effects. First, research suggests that the LLP is an effective strategy to improve students' reading comprehension (Dowhower, 1987;Hale et al, 2005;Skinner et al, 1998). Listening passage from the researcher may have increased students' reading comprehension and improved comprehension probably contributed to the students' reading fluency.…”

“…In general, skill-based interventions are implemented as a single or combined strategy for improving reading fluency. One of the skill-based interventions, listening passage preview involves someone reading the passage to student while the student read silently (Hale, Skinner, Winn, Oliver, & Allin, & Molloy, 2005). Research have suggested that listening passage preview was effective on improving students' oral reading fluency (Daly & Martens, 1994;Daly, Martens, Hamler, Dool, & Eckert, 1999), accuracy (Daly, Martens, Dool, & Hintze, 1998), and comprehension levels (Dowhower, 1987;Skinner, Robinson, Adamson, Atchison, & Woodward, 1998).…”