A Modified Extensive Reading and Repeated Reading Intervention with Adult ESL Students

Abstract

Twenty adult ESL students at a community college participated in a semester reading intervention. Participants received a modified extensive reading treatment, and some participants received an additional repeated reading direct instruction reading intervention. The author examined the impact of the reading interventions on ESL students’ reading fluency and reading comprehension. Within the two reading groups, students were selected randomly and placed into either the modified extensive reading group or the repeated reading intervention and modified extensive reading group. ESL students in the modified extensive reading group read graded readers; ESL students in the repeated reading and modified extensive reading group read graded readers and 12 non-fiction Read Naturally passages. Results of the quasi-experimental quantitative study indicated no significant difference between the intervention and comparison groups regarding reading fluency and reading comprehension; however, within group results were statistically significant regarding student reading rate and accuracy.