Effects of Repeated Readings on Instructional- and Mastery-Level Readers

Research suggests that repeated readings increase fluency and improve recall for learning-disabled (LD) and nondisabled instructional-level readers. The purpose of this study was to establish the comparability of these effects for instructional- and mastery-level readers. Twenty-five LD students were matched on fluency and comprehension with 25 nondisabled students, as determined by performance on two screening passages. In both groups, 17 students read the screening passages at instructional level and 8 students read them at mastery level. All the subjects read two additional passages, one passage once and one three times. In final readings, measures of fluency and accuracy were obtained, and after each final reading, measures of recall were derived. These data were analyzed in 2 x 2 x 2 ANOVAs. Significant main effects were obtained for number of readings on all three measures, and for level on fluency and accuracy. A significant classification (LD or nondisabled) by readings interaction on accuracy had little practical importance, and classification failed to interact with any other factor on any other variable. Results indicated that regardless of classification or level of functioning, repeated readings constituted more fluent reading and greater recall.