C-S CHANG -

EFFECTS OF TIMES OF REPETITION, TEXT FEATURES, AND READERS’ SIGHT AND AURAL VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE ON EFL LEARNERS’ ORAL READING RATES : INNOVATIVE APPROACHES IN ELT RESEARCH

This study investigated the effects of assisted oral reading on EFL learners’ oral reading rates and took into account repetition times, passage features (length and type), and language proficiency. Forty-nine students from a university of technology took part in a 27-week oral reading program. Teaching assistants were assigned to assist individual students’ oral reading and offered immediate feedback for their performance. Students read a total of 27 texts, one per week. The texts involved 9 short- and 9 long- conversational texts, and 9 monologic texts. Each text was read six times and the time for each oral reading was recorded. The collected data were analyzed with HLM. The dependent variable was students’ oral reading rates, and three fixed factors were repetition times, text features, and students’ language proficiency. The results showed that students’ oral reading rates significantly improved with times of repetition increased. Text length (shorter or longer) did not affect students’ oral reading rates but text types (conversational vs monologic) did. Higher-level students read significantly more fluently than those in the lower-level. Implication of the study results was discussed.

Dr. Anna C-S Chang is Professor in the Department of Applied English at Hsing Wu University, New Taipei, Taiwan, teaching courses on English listening, reading and vocabulary. Her main research interests focus on listening and reading development, and vocabulary learning. She has published extensively with internationally refereed journals