Repeated reading : An intervention study for students with little or no education, who partake in Swedish tuition for immigrants

This study investigated whether repeated reading can enhance reading fluency for students with little or no education, studying Swedish tuition for immigrants. The work was based on the question: Is there any difference in learning effects / degree of learning, depending on whether the repeated reading is done individually with the special education teacher, with a peer in the classroom, or individually conducted silent reading? To investigate that, three interventions were done: repeated reading individually with the special education teacher, repeated reading in pairs and individual silent reading of literary books. The students who had repeated reading individually with special education teachers improved their word decoding skills compared to the other two intervention groups. The students who had repeated reading with a peer in the classroom improved their word decoding skills more than the silent reading group. Students who had individual silent reading improved mainly their reading speed. The results showed that none of the groups improved both of the components of reading fluency, decoding and reading speed. The conclusion is that more studies are needed to find methods that enhance reading skills and test materials that work for low-educated students in Swedish tuition for immigrants