USING READING ALOUD STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE COLLEGE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

HO KIM NHI

USING READING ALOUD STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE
COLLEGE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

Major: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR
Ph.D. Tran Ba Tien

Nghệ An, 2017


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ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the effective of using reading aloud strategies for
improving reading comprehension of second year English-major students in Binh
Phuoc Teacher’s Training College for the Academic Year 2016-2017 in the second
semester.
By doing so, this study can identify the effectiveness of using reading aloud
strategies. There were 45 respondents which were randomly selected from two classes.
These groups of students were chosen because the researcher is one of the teachers in
English of the said school. The respondents were given a questionnaire and specific

lessons with language exercises in speaking as teaching strategies using language
games as the main device for gathering the data.
There is a significant difference on the pre-test and post-test scores of the
experimental group. The result implies that reading aloud strategies really help
develop the reading comprehension of the students and enhance their pronunciation. It
is not only functioning as time reading activities, but also they can bring some
educational values that enable the students to learn the language especially in reading
skill.
This study has proven that there is a significant relationship between the using
of reading aloud strategies and the reading comprehension of the students with a
moderate positive correlation. The use of reading aloud strategies has an impact to
second year English-major students with regards to their reading comprehension. The
strategies have been instrumental in developing their reading performance and
pronunciation through the aid of the assigned English teacher.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The researcher wishes to thank the following who, in one way or another,
extended their invaluable help, piece of advice, suggestions, and moral support for the
completion of this study:
Vinh University for offering a graduate program in Master of Arts in Teaching
English to graduate students who aspire to obtain quality education;
Long An University of Economics and Industry for the important endorsement
to participate in the program;
Assoc. Prof. Dinh Xuan Khoa, Vinh University President, for his remarkable
leadership which serves as inspiration to everyone, especially to graduate students;
Ph.D. Tran Ba Tien, former Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages
Education, for his informative comments and for the generosity, great help, advice and
motivation to fulfill this undertaking and guidance from the earliest stage of the

conduct of this research;
All lecturers in the Graduate Studies and Faculty of Foreign Languages
Education of Vinh University, for their commendable contributions in obtaining the
degree Master of Arts in Teaching English.
To his colleagues, friends and relatives for their moral support despite the
pressure of work, more so for their prayers and encouragement;
The researcher’s family, for their full moral and financial support and
everlasting love.
HO KIM NHI


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preliminaries...................................................................................................Page
Title Page..........................................................................................................i
Abstract............................................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgements...........................................................................................iv
Table of Contents..............................................................................................v
List of Tables....................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction..................................................................................................1
1.2 Rationale......................................................................................................3
1.3 Aims of the study........................................................................................ 9
1.4 Research questions.......................................................................................9
1.5 Scope of the study.......................................................................................10
1.6 Thesis design...............................................................................................11
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The definition of reading.............................................................................13
2.2 The importance of reading..........................................................................13
2.3 Reading Strategies......................................................................................14

2.3.1 Reading Aloud Strategies.........................................................................14
2.3.2 Reading Aloud Strategies and Literacy Skill............................................16
2.3.3 Reading Aloud with All Students.............................................................19
2.4 Reading Aloud Components.......................................................................20
2.5 Effectiveness of Reading Aloud Strategies.................................................22
2.6 Encouraging Students to Read Aloud..........................................................23
2.7 Guidelines of Reading Aloud Strategies.....................................................24
2.8 Reading Comprehension.............................................................................25
2.9 Factors impacting Reading .........................................................................26
2.10 Reading preference and Quality of Reading.............................................27
2.11 The impact of the media ...........................................................................28
2.12 Strategies of Reading comprehension.......................................................28


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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design.........................................................................................30
3.2 Respondents of the Study............................................................................31
3.3 Sampling Technique....................................................................................31
3.4 Research Instrument....................................................................................31
3.5 Data Gathering Instrument..........................................................................32
3.6 Research Procedure.....................................................................................33
3.7 Statistical Treatment ...................................................................................34
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Perceptions of social interaction.................................................................35
4.2 Reading Aloud Strategies used by English Teachers...................................38
4.3 Extent of Students’ Understanding by using Reading Aloud Strategies......41
4.4 Scores of the Pre-Test and Post -Test of the Control Group........................44
4.5 Scores of the Pre-Test and Post -Test of the Experimental Group...............45
4.6 Pre-test and Post-test Scores.......................................................................45

4.7 Significant Difference between Pre-test and Post-test Scores of the Experimental
Group................................................................................................................ 46
4.8 Significant Relationship of Using Reading Aloud Strategies......................47
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary of Findings..................................................................................49
5.2 Conclusion..................................................................................................51
5.3 Recommendations.......................................................................................51
REFERENCES...............................................................................................54
APPENDICES
Appendix A.......................................................................................................60
Appendix B.......................................................................................................62
Appendix C.......................................................................................................64
Appendix D.......................................................................................................67
Appendix E.......................................................................................................69


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: Students’ Perception of social interaction on reading comprehension…3 5
Table 4.2: Respondents’ Preference of Reading…………………………………. .3 8
Table 4.3: Extent of Students’ Understanding by using Reading Aloud Strategy…41
Table 4.4: Scores of the Pre-Test and Post Test of the Control Group……………44
Table 4.5: Scores of the Pre-Test and Post Test of the Experimental Group……..45
Table 4.6: Pre-test and Post-test Scores……………………………………………45
Table 4.7: Significant Difference between Pre-test and Post-test Scores of the
Experimental Group………………………………………………………………46
Table 4.8: Significant Difference between Pre-test and Post-test Scores of the
Experimental Group……………………………………………………………….4 7

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
With the rapid pace of globalization, English, as a universal language, has
opened the door to various fields such as commerce, communication, science and
technology throughout the world. In fact, the global awareness theme talks of the need
for students to be able to learn from and read collaboratively with individuals from
diverse culture, religion, ideologies, and lifestyle in an environment of openness and
mutual respect. The context and Social culture status of the English Language in
Vietnam, English is an important foreign language that has long been the most widelytaught at all educational institutions for all learners in Vietnam. Moreover, English is
also used as a medium of instruction at these ones such as bilingual schools,
international schools, colleges and universities at both public and private.
According to Vietnamese government, English in Vietnam is mainly provided
and managed by the Ministry of Education and Training. The government attitudes
towards English will be used as a second language in Vietnam in the future. Therefore,
they have many support policies resulting from these have influenced the nature of the
teaching and learning of English in Vietnam in particular ways.
As you know, reading is the main skill for learning English as well. There are
many authors stating about the importance of reading in learning English as a Foreign
Language (EFL). Jubani, Lama, and Gjokutaj (2012) stated that learning and
knowledge of English are fundamental to education for learners. The history of
reading is combined with the invention of writing. It is particular knowledge that no
one is born knowing how to read or to write because these two things must be taught
first at the beginning level. Reading is a factor of great significance in the human life.
Therefore, it is the main factor in the achieving language acquisition.
In another hand, Snow (2002) defined that reading is a complicated procedure
that is made up of various components, all of which must be executed and
accomplished by the readers with the only purpose for getting or translating meaning
from printed text. Besides, the reader must quickly and accurately comprehend printed
words in the book, attempt to understand the various meanings of words, and

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create a cohesive mental model of the meaning of the text. Obviously, effective
reading requires them to make accurate meaning of the text by making
inferences based on connections within and beyond the current texts.
Moreover, reading is an important element to help students how to gain access
to many different kinds of knowledge, information, and ideas. Also, reading has many
benefits for students because it can enhance students’ social skills and open up new
worlds for them. The students must see reading as an enjoyable activity in order to
truly benefit from it not only related to school. Heisey, N., & Kucan, L. (2010) pointed
out the result of his study that the students will use reading to learn about all subjects;
therefore, if they do not have strong reading skills, they might struggle in their
academic lives.
Roberts (2011) declared that most foreign language learners can master reading
at the age of an appropriate level and continue to increase their reading skills or
abilities over their learning and beyond better. However, (Roberts & Wanzek, 2012;
Chapman & Tunmer, 2003) indicated that students who continue to display reading
comprehension after experience difficulties. Then, reading plays one of the most
important and critical educational factors because it affects virtually all academic
disciplines. Additionally, Strong et al., (2002) ‘s reading research has reveal that
reading

skill

is

inseparably

connected to many components such as problem

solving, critical thinking, writing, researching, supporting ideas, reasoning, and
creativity.
Reading fluency is a crucial skill for efficient and effective reading. According
to the work of LaBerge and Samuels (1974), which is based on the theory of
automatic information processing, poor readers experience difficulty with fluency,
because visual information is transformed and processed by the reader until the
individual comprehends what is being read.
1.2 Rationale
The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) in Vietnam has set a target of
boosting foreign language teaching and learning in all levels from primary schools to
universities. At the start of the academic year 2011-2012, students at specific schools


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will have to some subjects in English. As stated by Zhang (2012), reading is one of
language skills that must be mastered by any foreign language learner because reading
is an essential tool for getting main knowledge, thinking and learning. Considering
how important reading skill in learning English, teachers of English are motivated in
the saying that “Reading is one of the central elements of getting knowledge.” In EFL
(English Foreigner Language) teaching, it is an aspect that needs special attention and
instruction. In order to provide effective attention, it is necessary for a teacher of EFL
to carefully examine the factors, condition and components that underlie reading
comprehension by using reading aloud strategies for teaching.
For most people, the ability to read a foreign language texts or books is
synonymous with knowing that language because speech is for them the basic means
of human knowledge. English learners no longer expect the traditional approach of
their teachers based on developing mainly the grammatical competence and using
methodology popular in the past. Today, teachers are expected to provide their students
with useful active knowledge of the foreign language, not just theory about the

language. In Vietnam, this problem is even more serious. Aside from the term of
practicing, Vietnamese students always have to face with many other difficulties in
teaching reading English skill.
Coper.P. & Mclntyre. (2000) showed that the effective teaching and learning
between teacher and students are not easy. Activities in the classroom affect the
reading performance a lot. Teacher knows how to teach proficiency and transfer the
motivation to the student, and students feel like to study. Teacher has good knowledge
and good experience will apply many teaching techniques. Teacher will be success in
applying a lot of activities which make students more willing to learn language and
active to take part in the lessons. It is obvious that students learn more effectively
when they have teacher than they learn individually. Teacher is the indefectible actor
in the educational process, therefore, it is necessarily that teacher needs to explore
many methods which they can implement their duty efficiently and effectively.
A general principle in the past in Viet Nam when learning language it is done by
the Traditional Methods. It had a lot of limitations. This method mainly focuses on


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learning grammar rule and vocabulary. Traditional methods did not pay much attention to
the reading skill. For instance, when students learn writing, students are mainly focus on
grammar rule and translating them to the mother tongue. And when students study
reading, “grammar translation method produced habits indicative of deciphering and not
of reading” (Tyler 2008). The student tries to know the meaning of every words and its
grammatical structure because they want to understand the text.
As you know, reading is a potential part of learning foreign language as stated
in several studies. For many years, language teaching in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s
Training College has experienced difficulties from grammatical form and vocabulary
to reading skill. To address this concern, short training courses (usually from 3 - 5
days in length) have been conducted for English teachers in the college. However,
these short courses did not satisfy teachers' needs in language teaching in the school

because most participants still had difficulty meeting the standard conditions in
teaching reading skills. Aside from this, they did not have access to up-to-date
materials. As a result, they encountered a lot of difficulties in English language
teaching, especially techniques for teaching speaking skills.
Located in the South Earth Area of the South of Vietnam, Binh Phuoc Province
where the researcher lives and works has had many difficulties in access many
modern foreign language teaching methodology. It is an agricultural province of the
South of Vietnam. Therefore, English does not focus on developing. Moreover, there
is no university excepting for Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College and Binh
Phuoc College of Medicine in Binh Phuoc Province. Especially in Binh Phuoc
Teacher’s Training College, there is only one academic program for English major
but it is not popular. However, English has been teaching for all students as a
compulsory subject for graduation in generally. In particularly, there are about one
hundred twenty students who are learning English as a main major under the
curriculum of faculty of foreign languages. In the sum of these students, there are
about forty-five English major students who are chosen for doing the research.
Although the teaching facilities and method have been upgraded regularly, many


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students cannot read English fluently. As being known, when teaching English in the
college, teachers do not use English frequently and effectively.
In class, students tend to talk in Vietnamese in group work activities. In reading
activities, students do not have equal opportunities to participate. Students are not
given as many as reading activities or exercises in class even in social activities. They
are lack of learning English environment; so they are not motivated enough to learn
English language, especially in reading skill. The development of the English reading
language proficiency of students in our college has become a concern of the
researcher after having observed the students’ inability to read in English accurately
and fluently and after having listened to other English Foreign Language teachers

complaints about their students’ poor English reading skills. When teaching reading
skill, teachers always let student stand up and read aloud the text printed in the book.
After that, teachers require students do the exercise or tasks in the books only. They
do not have any innovation or motivation in teaching the skill.
As in other parts of the world, Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College use
standardized basic knowledge in order to teach English reading skill to all English
major students at the level of beginners because the qualifications of students are not
good enough to read proficiently. As a second-year students, they learn how to read
effectively and fluently and at upper level and comprehend the reading text. As has
been shown by Al-Jarf (2007), students just read for comprehension their knowledge.
Following the academic curriculum for the program of Teaching English as a
Foreign Language (TEFL) for student diploma of the Faculty of Foreign Languages in
Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College, the reading courses or subjects are designed to
concentrate on word recognition, comprehension, and acquisition of vocabulary. For
the outcomes of reading skill, it is required to read the texts and comprehend them
effectively. The students are tested by the paper or multiple choice tests only.
Unfortunately, during teaching procedure in class, many of the students in the school
are not good at reading. They are always shy when the teacher lets them read aloud.
This has a negative impact on the students’ academic achievement. The main goal is to
have each student reading at his or her own level or above it. To have students at Binh


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Phuoc Teacher’s Training College reading at below grade level of reading is not good,
and something must be done to change it. As a result, most of the teachers want to help
these students, but they are not sure how to help and what the best strategies are that
can help the students to become better readers. The present study uses the reading
aloud strategies in order to improve reading comprehension and literacy for second
year English major students of the college and motivate their desire to read effectively
and fluently.

During the reading class, the area of inquiry for this project is motivated the
students to read aloud which allows for their adaptability. McGee & Schickedanz
(2007) stated that the problem being researched is that the learners are bored and being
marketed while their reading comprehension by using reading aloud strategies. Then
they are very few “operating instructions” about how to motivate them by reading
aloud are usually being given by their parents at home. The research suggests that the
development vocabulary through listening and reading comprehension by using
reading aloud strategies is not sufficient for accelerating the learners in class. Then, the
teachers let their students read aloud and answer these questions for comprehension
passively. Perhaps, students are easy to be bored with this traditional method. It is also
in the research of McGee & Schickedanz (2007), there are strongly differences
between reading aloud and the effectiveness of reading aloud in their study. For many
English teachers, the problem is how can they adapt or motivate their students by
using reading aloud strategies for teaching reading skill to meet the literacy needs
necessarily to all students. Another way to address this problem is to make some
questions to ask the students whether teachers can capitalize on the effectiveness of the
reading aloud strategies in order to comprehend the reading motivation for their
students.
Actually, Buzanni (2008) concluded that it is not easy to master reading skills.
Among the problems in learning reading skills are:
(1) The limited opportunities for the students to practice in class;
(2) The lack of variety of teaching techniques used by the teacher in class;


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(3) The teaching strategies application was monotonous that made the
students bored and disinterested in studying English.
This is also evident among most Vietnamese students who understand effectively
but cannot read quite well, accurately and fluently in real read situation on reading
comprehension. Because of this dilemma, the researcher aims to identify the particular

problems which many teachers of English are interested in teaching English at Binh
Phuoc Teacher’s Training College in generally. In particularly, this research would focus
on the reading aloud strategies used by the English teachers for teaching reading skill
and its relation to the students’ reading comprehension, knowing that teachers in the
school have encountered difficulties on this area. Considering these problems,
improving students’ reading performance is part of a teacher’s job and a motivation for
students to develop their reading comprehension during studying English language
major. Besides, the teacher is expected to suggest the most effective teaching techniques
to students in teaching reading skill through the use of reading aloud strategies
effectively and to create a positive classroom environment for learners. Therefore, the
students will have an opportunity to improve English reading performance among their
proficiently after the suggestion of the study.
For me, I have conducted the study about the effectiveness of using reading
aloud strategies to improve reading comprehension for the student in my college
because of basing on my own teaching experiences and perception. I think that when
teachers let the students read aloud interactively, they appear to benefit from the
experience of learning and teaching language. I get the concern about this issue
because I have seen the positive outcomes of using interactive reading aloud strategies
to teach reading skill in my school. Throughout my educational knowledge and
understanding, I have been in many classrooms that teachers have allowed me to see
how they apply the strategies of reading aloud. Fortunately, I have had many
opportunities to observe teachers who strongly agree in “interactive” reading aloud
strategies to improve reading comprehension, ones that involve reading aloud,
questioning, translating, predicting, and discussing during the reading class. The
teacher conducts of using an interactive read aloud during “circle time” day by day.


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Through the time, he is able to motivate students in the reading by asking and
answering questions, translating into Vietnamese, and making predictions.

As has been shown (Morrison and Wlodarczyk, 2009) when teachers use
reading aloud strategies to improve reading comprehension for students, they are
supporting and motivating the students’ listening and speaking abilities in order to
enhance their development of language proficiency. However, McGee and
Schickendanz (2007) admitted that “the most effective reading aloud strategy is those
in which English learners are actively involved asking and answering questions and
making predictions rather than passively listening” (p.742). As the point of view, I
would like to explore the study about the effectiveness of using reading aloud
strategies to improve reading comprehension for English educational teaching diploma
students in my college, Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College and motivate their
desire to read effectively and fluently.
1.3 Aims of the study
In the study, the research would like to conduct a study on “Using reading
aloud strategies to improve college students’ reading comprehension”. The study
is to investigate some effectiveness of reading aloud related to English reading
comprehension of students in the college.
1.4 Research questions
Nowadays, the researcher is an English lecturer at Binh Phuoc Teacher’s
Training College that is a government institution to produce many teachers for Binh
Phuoc Province and some local areas around. From based observations and 20 – yearteaching experience, it has seemed that all reading lesson classroom interactions are
boring and restricted. During the lesson, students do not get involved in the activities
conducted by their teacher. They just keep silent while others do for their own. Hence,
one of the concerns to English teachers is to find out the answer these two questions
below:
1. Will college students improve their reading comprehension by using reading
aloud strategies?


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2. What obstacles may students encounter when using reading aloud

strategies?
1.5 Scope of the study
Although the research has shown the effectiveness of using reading aloud
strategies to improve the reading comprehension of students, there are a few
limitations during doing the research. While many studies explore and determine the
effectiveness and benefits of reading aloud strategies on various aspects of students
reading comprehension and performance, few studies exist that explicitly explore
specific strategies, exploring how teacher conduct the reading aloud strategies. Many
of the science studies discussed in this research focus on students’ questions during the
reading aloud strategies, yet no clear information appears to be given regarding how
the reading aloud strategies should be conducted from start to finish with limited
timing, sequencing, pacing.
The second limitation was the number of the respondents. In this study, I only
had 45 English major students who were from two classes in the courses 18 with the
association diploma of teaching major in English Teacher in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s
Training College. With a larger sample size, I think that the study results would be
more meaningful. Also, having more students would provide a better range of variety
for my data collection.
The third limitation was the attendance of the participants. While I was doing
this project, some students missed class because the period conducted the survey was
the time for final second term examination. This missing of classes had a negative
impact on the students’ achievement.
However, this study is one of parts of science research that has been conducted
to investigate the effectiveness of using of the reading aloud strategies to increase
reading comprehension for English major student in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training
College. This study provides a lot of useful information that could help students to
improve their reading comprehension in general. Reading aloud has been identified as
the basis background for students starting to study language; hence, it constitutes an
essential part of any reading class. I attempt to provide evidence to all teachers and

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educators of the importance of the reading aloud strategies and the relationship with
the students’ reading comprehension. Moreover, I tried to indicate how much student
understanding and achievement were positively affected by using the reading aloud
strategies. The research objective of this study was to undertake the implementation of
the reading aloud strategies in order to determine its effectiveness in producing
positive outcomes on reading comprehension.
1.6 Design of the study
The thesis is structured as follows:
Chapter 1 problematizes the object of the study. To do this, it deals with the six parts of
introduction, rationale, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study focus
and design of the study.
Chapter 2 contains the literature review, with a discussion of the definition, the
importance of reading and the benefits of the reading strategies used in this research.
This chapter also reviews some previous research studies on using reading strategies
on reading comprehension.
Chapter 3 deals with research design and methodology employed to carry out the
research. It describes four main issues regarding the research site, participants, data
types and methods of data collection, and analytical framework.
Chapter 4 analyses and discusses the findings grounded in the data analyzed in the
previous chapter.
Chapter 5 will be summarized the main points and contents of the study based on the
results of the study. The implication of the study and the recommendation for further
research will be presented.


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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Many theories are presented in this chapter as an explanation for the
effectiveness of using reading aloud strategies for improving reading comprehension.
The following literature review will provide a foundation for my study.
2.1 The definition of reading
Reading is a complex endeavor that is made up of multiple components, all of
which must be executed and orchestrated by the reader with the goal of making
meaning from printed text. The reader must quickly and accurately recognize printed
words, understand the various meanings of words, and create a cohesive mental
model of the meaning of the text. Effective reading requires the reader to make
accurate sense of the text by making inferences based on connections within
and beyond the current text (Snow, 2002).
Reading is one of the most important and critical educational skills because it
influences virtually all academic disciplines (Roberts & Wanzek, 2012; Chapman &
Tunmer, 2003). Additionally, reading research has further established that reading
skills are inseparably linked to problem solving, critical thinking, writing,
researching, organizing ideas, reasoning, and creativity (Strong et al., 2002).
2.2 The importance of reading
Holte (1998) defined that reading is a significant tool for learning any
languages, so it is essential for learners to develop reading skill first when learning
foreign languages. Moreover, reading allows access to culture and cultural heritage
from its own country. Therefore, believing in the importance of reading to students
who are learning foreign language especially English, I shall address the importance of
reading comprehension by using the reading aloud strategies to encourage students’
reading skills and increase their desire to read.
Up to now, numerous researchers have believed that reading speed is being
simultaneously

raised with accuracy and fluency, and as readers learn by

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practicing, their fluency and accuracy improves significantly by using many
strategies for reading skill. The higher number of sight words a student can perceive
and the better the

improvement of the reader, the easier the task of reading

fluently became. Therefore, reading is a highly complicated skill that everyone ought
to learn if they want to master the language; in fact, it is classified as an important
language skill.
Students who enjoy reading and spend a lot of time reading will be more
proficient in reading, will achieve better in school, and will have good grades.
According to Benton and Fox (1995), “Stories provide the possibility of educating the
feelings and can offer their readers potential growth points for the development of a
more subtle awareness of human behavior”(p. 15). Reading can also help students
improve in spelling because when students learn how to sound out letters and words,
spelling comes easier. In addition, reading helps students get exposure to vocabulary
and language patterns that are not common in everyday speech (Foster, 2008). As a
result, students understand the structures of the book they are reading when they are
reading independently.
2.3 Reading strategies
2.3.1 Reading aloud strategies
Reading aloud strategies are the foundations for literacy development in
learning foreign language. They are the single most important activities for reading
success. (Jacobs, Morrison, & Swinyard, 2000) showed that reading aloud to foreign
language learners not only in the classroom but also in the home is a practice that has
been recommended for many years.

Most children are motivated by books and

reading as a tool when their parents read to them aloud. Years after years, parents have
been going on to reinforce this skill regularly. As soon as the child enters school, the
teacher will start to work along with the parents to recommend that reading aloud is
consistent within the child’s education. Then, children are reinforced to many ways to
deal with a book by reading aloud. These ways include things such as responding to
questions as you read, becoming familiar with many new words, and using other
reading comprehension strategies that will help them to get a better understanding of


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the book that is being read. They also defined that reading aloud is a strategy in which
the teacher reads a selected texts or stories out loud to students, often as a whole group
activity. Reading aloud or oral reading should be a significant process that students
carry throughout their learning that can begin as soon as the child. The author
concluded that there has been some controversy on whether reading aloud to beginner
readers is appropriate or not, but her study found that reading aloud to them was very
beneficial to the language development when mastering the reading skill. They intend
to develop a love habit for reading aloud which makes it easier and more effective to
learn to fluently reading comprehension, along with making it easier for them to
comprehend what they are reading.
In the Comprehension Toolkit, Harvey and Goudvis (2005) write that it is very
important for teachers to read aloud even though classroom time is limited. Students
come to us with a wide range of background knowledge. To achieve one of the goals,
we have to try the best to support all learners with a foundation that will enable them
to risk learning new concepts. They also summarized that everything we read and learn
is colored by our background knowledge. Then, reading aloud strategies give teachers
an essential opportunity to directly guideline learning for all students who lack
knowledge background for deep understanding of contents before we lead them into
more complex subject matter. The reading aloud and follow-up conversation provide
teachers chances to help students develop background knowledge and apply concepts

so that all learners can begin to clarify their critical thinking during their discussions
with their peers and teachers (Dorn & Soffos, 2005).
According to Allington (2001), he agreed that in order for learners to develop
thoughtful literacy in studying foreign language, they must be given an amount of
opportunities throughout the day to explain their understanding and to practice using
reading comprehension strategies under the guidance of the teacher. Reading aloud
strategies also stimulate abnormality in beginning level as it is used to motivate
learners into a safe environment to marvel at the concepts being cited (Harvey, 1998).
Known internationally for many decades of work in the area of literacy for
teachers, Routman (2003) has pointed out that the reading aloud strategies are the


14
powerful forces during the learning procedure and that they are still the single most
important things a teacher does during the school day. He also found that using reading
aloud can motivate reading learners to hear the rich language of stories and texts they
cannot yet read on their own. By reading aloud to students, they learn as well as
improve new word, practical grammar, and helpful information and how stories and
written language works.
2.3.2 Reading Aloud Strategies and Literacy Skill
In a study, Wasik and Bond (2001) evaluated the effectiveness of “interactive
book reading on the language and literacy development of foreign language learners.
They concluded that the English teachers in the intervention group were given
professional development in interactive book by using many reading techniques
including reading aloud strategies and extension activities. The findings of this study
indicated that the interactive reading aloud strategies can be applied by teachers and
have a positive effect on the language proficiency and literacy development of learners
when using for teaching English reading skills as the instructional strategies with those
EFL learners.
Another literacy skills impacted by the reading aloud strategies are the

developments and expansions of vocabulary knowledge. Following the study of
Senechal, Thomas, and Monker (1995), it assessed how EFL learners with an amount
of vocabulary knowledge during learning new vocabulary from listening to stories
read aloud by the teachers. With the two experiment groups of the research, the results
proved that beginner learners who actively participated in the reading aloud strategies,
through asking questions or labeling and pointing to pictures, learned more words than
others who passively listened to the reading of the text. Thus, the conclusion of this
study support the concept of active participation in a reading aloud sessions as a means
to enhance vocabulary acquisition.
The perception of the EFL learners towards reading comprehension is one of
the literacy skills impacted by using reading aloud strategies during learning and
teaching language. Barnyak (2011) conducted a qualitative research on the verbal and
physical interactions of learners and their parents during reading aloud and the literacy


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perceptions and beliefs of the parents. The results revealed that reading within
families’ everyday lives, reading supported through parents’ positive outlooks, and
reading supported through fostering storybook extensions were three main themes
identified throughout parent interviews. Results indicated that parents who participated
in this study had positive attitudes and beliefs in regards to reading a story with their
children. During interviews, attitudes and beliefs towards reading and sharing books
were two emerging themes. Results indicate that children who participated in the study
hold a positive attitude towards sharing storybooks with parents when parents have a
positive attitude.
In further examining instructional strategies, Coyne, McCoach, Loftus, Zipoli,
and Kapp (2009) “compare the effects of two interventions that differed in their
approach to direct vocabulary instruction for young students” by using reading aloud
strategies. The authors created three versions of the intervention condition: three words
to be taught using extended instruction, three words taught using embedded

instruction, and three words receiving incidental exposure. Each group of words to be
taught in the intervention included two nouns and one adjective. Participants were
randomly assigned to each version of intervention. All participants listened to three
readings of a text and were exposed to all target vocabulary words during each
reading. Intervention was delivered in small groups and data were collected through
pretest, post-test, and a delayed posttest eight weeks after intervention. Results indicate
that there are significant differences between pre-test and post-test scores that favor
vocabulary words taught with extended and embedded instruction over words that
receive incidental exposure. The extended and embedded instruction closely resemble
the interactive read aloud strategies.
Leung (2008) explored the type of vocabulary learned during the read aloud
strategies. He found that the learners’ knowledge vocabulary acquisition of scientific
terms from participation in repeated interactive reading aloud strategies. Results
indicated that EFL learners who participate in social interactive reading aloud attained
a significant increase in expressive vocabulary. Results also showed that they were
also better able to demonstrate the meaning of target vocabulary words and use those


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words during a retelling after participating in one-on-one book retellings. Although
results reflect positively on the use of interactive reading aloud, a major limitation of
this study is the lack of a control group.
Focusing on interactions between teachers and students during a procedure of
using a reading aloud strategies, Sipe (2000) reported on the constructing of literacy
understanding by the oral response of EFL learners during reading aloud of academic
books. The author conducted an investigation with participants of this study included
18 first students and nine second year students enrolled in a public community college
in a working class residential community in the United States of America. The findings
represented for five components of learners’ talk in relation to literacy understanding
such as analytical talk, inter-textual, personal talk, transparent talk, and formative talk.

Results also indicated that the students’ reading competence based on reading
comprehension occurring during the reading of the story. These results indicated that it
is very important to encourage students to listen to the story as a whole before
beginning a discussion may result in less discussion and “lower level literary
understanding” than when following an on-going interactive reading aloud strategies.
2.3.3 Reading Aloud with All Students
Gort, Pontier, and Sembiante (2012) explore the study to investigate the
effectiveness of using read-aloud activities. With four teachers and the students from
two classrooms in the community college as participants of this study, data was
collected through digital video recordings of 13 daily 15 minute for reading aloud
sessions each. Five of the reading aloud sessions was in English and eight were in
Spanish. Data was analyzed by using qualitative method and coded by using the
constant-comparative method. Questions or non-questions were originally coded for
transcripts. Results indicated that the functions of the questions represented varied
levels of cognitive challenge and that some questions functions were more prevalent in
one language context. Results also showed that the nature of interaction by using
reading aloud strategies allowed teachers to ask a variety of questions exhibiting a
multitude of functions.


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Previous to the Gort, Pontier, and Sembiante (2012) study, Ulanoff and Pucci
(1999) found the improvements in “second language vocabulary as a direct result of
different literacy lessons implementing two bilingual methodologies: concurrent
translation and preview-review”. Participants of this study are 60 students identified as
English Language Learners in three classrooms from a community college in the USA.
All students in the three classroom participated in the study, however only those with
Spanish as their primary language were included in the analyzed sample. Participants
were divided into three groups: a control group, a concurrent translation group, and a
preview-review group. Students in each group were given a pretest to evaluate their

knowledge competence of 20 words from a specific text by reading aloud to them. All
groups were given a post-test, with the same vocabulary items as the pre-test,
immediately following the read aloud and again one week later. Results indicated that
the control group showed larger gains than the concurrent group and that the
concurrent group actually scored higher on the delayed post-test one week later”;
however the preview-review group showed significant gains over the control and
concurrent group. These results suggest that students perform better when they receive
instruction that builds background knowledge and provides scaffolding activities
during a read aloud.
Specifically looking at reading comprehension development for diverse
learners, Silverman (2007) investigates the effectiveness of vocabulary intervention
through reading aloud storybook. Participants of this study were 44 English-only and
28 English Language Learners in five schools in the northeastern. Data were analyzed
through the Test of Language Development and researcher-developed assessments.
Results indicate that English-only students and English Language Learners both made
significant growth in knowledge of target words while English Language Learners’
knowledge of target words grew faster than English-only students. These findings
show that provided with appropriate instruction methods, English Language Learners
can learn vocabulary from instruction fast or faster than English-only students.
Also looking at the reading comprehension development, Echevarria (1995)
examines the “effects of an interactive approach, instructional conversations, on the


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language and concept development of his panic students with disabilities”. Results for
proximal measures indicated higher levels of discourse and greater participation with
IC than with a basal approach. The findings also indicate that “students with learning
disabilities used higher levels of discourse when given the opportunity to do so, and
were able to adjust the discourse to the context at hand”. Therefore, results of this
study show a positive relationship between the read aloud strategies and the

comprehension of English Language Learners.
2.4 Reading Aloud Components
This section focuses on the read aloud instructional strategies itself and the
various components and techniques involved in its use. Wiseman (2010) introduced
teachers’ approaches to facilitate interaction between teacher and students in the
classroom when students read and make sense of stories aloud. Findings of this study
describe how interactive reading aloud strategies were important learning
opportunities for motivation readers because they provided opportunities for openended response combined with specific reading instruction. Participants of this study
were 21 students in an urban classroom in a northeastern metropolitan city. Results of
this study illustrate “the importance of providing readers with active ways to
contribute to the curriculum in ways that build on students’ own ways of
conceptualizing reading and literacy”.
Corcoran and Mamalakis (2009) investigate student attitudes towards reading
and the various techniques, including reading aloud used to encourage reading.
Participants consisted of “26 fifth grade students from two single-gender classrooms”
(p.137) that were selected due to their teacher’s outstanding reputation. However, this
was the teacher’s first year teaching a single gender classroom. Data collection
involved independently completed surveys that examined student perceptions. The
surveys included 12 “forced choice questions” (p.139). Findings of the survey indicate
that 88% of the participants responded that their classroom teacher conducted reading
aloud a few times a week, but their desire was for their teacher to conduct a read aloud
daily. These results indicate that even upper elementary fifth grade level students have
preferences for frequent teacher reading aloud.


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Specifically looking at the component of text selection and types of texts used
in a reading aloud session, Pentimonti, Zucker, Justice, and Kaderavek (2010) found
the types of texts used in classroom by using reading aloud strategy in order to
generate an understanding of the informational expository texts used and how they

relate to content area topics and state standards. Participants were female teachers of
classrooms. Data were collected through written teacher logs where teachers recorded
the types of texts used during whole-class reading aloud sessions. Results indicate that
the majority of texts coded were narrative (82%) followed by a mixed genre (13%).
Only 4% of texts coded were determined to be informational texts. These results
indicate that “progress has not been made in increasing the amount of time devoted to
informational texts” (p.661) since a previous study by the same researchers in 2000.
Analysis of the informational texts reveals that “some dominate categories align with
prevailing topics emphasized in the teachers’ state standards, but other important
content areas were infrequently targeted with reading aloud strategy”.
Similarly, Pentimonti, Zucker, and Justice (2011) clarified reading aloud
strategy in classroom in terms of the types of texts that learners are exposed to.
Participants of this study were 13 female teachers who worked to serve disadvantaged
reared in poverty. The study was conducted over a 30 week period in which teachers
received a new trade book each week that represented a range of genres. Teachers were
to keep a written log of whole group read aloud sessions for the 30 week period. This
log included a “record of how many books teachers read to their pupils each day above
and beyond assigned books and the titles of these additional books”. Data for this
study involved coding of text titles reported in teachers’ reading logs for genre and
instructional focus. Results indicate that narrative texts were read most frequently
representing 85%, followed by mixed genre representing 8.5 %, and informational
texts representing 5.4 % of read aloud sessions.
2.5 Effectiveness of the reading aloud strategies
Franmcveigh, (2013)showed that comprehension is certainly the literacy skill
that teachers can improve in their day-to-day teaching activities, and this can be
discovered through the procedure of teaching and learning foreign language by using