Impacts of Cross-age Paired Reading on Oral Reading Fluency of EFL Graders in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Yu-Hsuan Chao, 趙又萱
• Other Authors: Chin-Fen Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/34599638920013326254

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 兒童英語教育學系碩士班 === 102 === The quasi-experimental study aimed to explore the effectiveness of cross-age paired reading on the oral reading fluency, including oral reading rate and oral reading accuracy, of elementary school students in Taiwan. Twenty third-grade students and 10 sixth-grade students in Keelung City participated in this study. The former was assigned equally as the control group and the experimental group. The experimental group formed a cross-age paired reading group, in which the sixth-grade tutors were paired with the third-grade tutees to read aloud story books together, 30 minutes a day and one day per week for 12 weeks. While, the control group received the conventional teacher-led story book reading instruction. Data required for the study were collected through the pre- and post- oral reading fluency tests in terms of oral reading rate and accuracy and calculated with a paired t-test of SPSS. In addition, attitude toward cross-age paired reading of the students in the experimental group was also investigated through a semi-structured interview in the end of the experimental instruction to triangulate with the data calculated statistically. The results showed that the students of both groups made progress in their oral reading fluency significantly. Moreover, both high-grade tutors and low-grade tutees in the experimental group have improved their oral reading fluency and reading attitude, especially in the aspect of self-confidence in reading. Based upon the research findings, some suggestions for EFL cooperative reading instruction were offered.