Abstract

Fluent reading has been described as the ability to read a passage with accuracy, at a steady rate, with minimal hesitancy, and good comprehension (Grabe, 2009; Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, & Meisinger, 2010). Dysfluent reading can affect motivation for reading in English language learners, thereby limiting access to a wealth of language input from written texts (Taguchi, Gorsuch, & Sasamoto, 2006). Extensive research of repeated reading in L1 settings has been shown to increase reading fluency (Samuels, 1979; National Reading Panel, 2000), while comparatively little research has been done on repeated reading in L2 settings (Grabe, 2009). The objective of this eye-tracking study was to accurately document lower-level and higher-level reading processes in an immediate repeated reading exercise to observe how repeated reading affects reading fluency in adult English language learners. In our study, 30 students in an intensive English program in the United States read three short expository texts three times each. Eye-tracking showed significant increases in reading fluency measures in both lower-level and higher-level reading functions. For example, average first fixation duration decreased by 15 ms from the first to the third reading and average late dwell time decreased by 40 ms from the first to third reading. Repeated reading is an exercise that should be considered by educators to help English language learners increase their reading fluency with immediate repeated reading of expository texts.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Linguistics and English Language

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2019-11-26

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd11736

Keywords

English as a second language, eye-tracking, repeated reading, reading fluency

Language

english

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