The Efficacy of Whole Language Approach with Predictable Texts on Reading Comprehension

• Main Authors: Yi-ting Chang, 張憶婷
• Other Authors: Dr. Li-ling Chuang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97713334105783876084

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 兒童英語研究所 === 102 === With reading taken as one of the essential English skills for language learners, studies have shown that whole language reading instruction helps children construct meaning from what they encounter in text. The Whole Language Approach emphasizes children’s efforts to seek meaning in language. Correcting technical errors is therefore not the focus of whole language instruction. Despite its holistic transaction between the reader and text, the whole language approach may present problems for EFL students, given that they need decoding skills in order to build their reading fluency. Featuring in repeated patterns, predictable books can provide children with additional linguistic practice as they read. The current study investigates the effects of predictable books with whole language approach on Taiwanese sixth graders’ reading comprehension. There were forty four graders from an elementary school from central Taiwan participating in the study. The subjects from two intact classes were assigned randomly to an experiment group and a control group. Both groups received twenty-week predictable book reading instruction with and without Whole Language approach. The instruments included an English learning background questionnaire, English reading proficiency pretest and posttest, English reading fluency pretest and posttest, ten immediate story reading comprehension tests, an English achievement posttest, and a questionnaire of learners’ attitudes toward the experimental intervention. The results of the study revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on ten immediate story comprehension tests, reading achievement posttest, and reading proficiency posttest. The positive findings suggested that predictable books with Whole Language Approach was effective in building EFL children’s reading experiences as the Whole Language Approach using predictable books not only provides holistic meaning but makes reading instruction naturally effective.