Effect of a reading aloud program on reading rate and reading prosody in a group of sixth-grade low achievement language minority readers with low SES

Language minority (LM) students’ reading comprehension remains less proficient than that of their native peers in the upper elementary grades, even if they develop proficient word decoding skills in the primary grades. Given the link between reading comprehension and reading fluency, a way of addressing LM student’s reading difficulties is to attempt to improve their reading fluency.
The purpose of this study was to investigate if a group of sixth-grade low achievement LM students’ reading skills could be improved by an intervention designed to train reading fluency, a critical component of reading development, defined as integrating speed and accuracy (reading rate) as well as prosody. The study included 54 sixth-grade LM students attending a school with a low socio-economic index. Two groups matched on different reading and control (vocabulary, arithmetic, non-verbal intelligence, socio-demographic characteristics) measures were randomly assigned to an intervention condition, which consisted of a tutored reading aloud intervention combining repeated reading, assisted wide reading and modeling prosody or to a control condition, where students achieved their usual classroom activities. Reading rate (number of words correctly read per minute), prosody and comprehension were assessed. Students who received the intervention scored better on measures of reading prosody but not on reading rate and comprehension measures than students from the control group. The present study provides empirical support that LM struggling students can benefit from a reading fluency intervention to develop important reading prosody skills, not only on practiced texts but also on new texts.