The effects of Previewing on Retarded Learners'oral Reading

Abstract

An alternating treatments design was used to investigate relative effects of two previewing procedures on oral reading: (a) silent, in which the student reads silently the assigned reading passage prior to reading the passage aloud, and (b) listening, in which the teacher reads the assigned selection aloud and the student follows along silently prior to the student reading the passage aloud. Five elementary-school aged mentally retarded learners, three boys and two girls, participated in the study. Results indicated that systematic previewing procedures were related to higher performance levels than was baseline (no previewing). Differential effects were noted: the listening procedure was generally related to higher rates of words read correctly than was the silent procedure. Implications for research and instructional procedures are discussed.

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