Oral Reading and Silent Reading─The Effect on Taiwanese EFL Senior High School Students’ Comprehension

• Main Authors: Jiou-luen Tseng, 曾久倫
• Other Authors: Jeni Li
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89691261365933289883

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語研究所 === 91 === The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of silent reading, self-reading aloud and teacher’s reading aloud on Taiwanese senior high school students’ reading comprehension. Specifically, the present study investigates whether the three reading modes have different impacts on the students’ comprehending two different text types─narration and exposition, and on their answering two different question types─main idea questions and detail questions. 75 second-graders at Bailing Senior High School serve as subjects. They are divided into three groups and are required to do 21 reading passages with 67 comprehension questions in the three different reading modes. Ten volunteers from each group are interviewed after the reading comprehension tests. The test results exhibit that the silent reading is the most beneficial mode to senior high school students’ reading comprehension, especially in comprehending narrative texts and in answering detail questions. The interview reports also show the students’ preference for silent reading. The sound and the controlled reading speed of the oral reading modes are reported to inhibit the students’ comprehension. The findings of this study reveal that oral reading might be a good method for providing variation to regular courses or for raising the students’ motivation. But as far as comprehension is concerned, silent reading is still needed for each individual student. Without controlled reading pace and without sound as a distractor for thought, senior high school students are more likely to have better comprehension of the texts and superior performance in the reading tests.