A Research Study of the Effect of Instruction in the Basal Reader Supplemented by the Language Experience Approach on Comprehension Scores of First Grade Readers

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children enrolled in two first grade classes who did not meet the criterion score for one or more of the seven subtests on a selected readiness test given during the first two weeks of the school year would make higher scores on selected comprehension measures when instruction in a basal reading series is supplemented with instruction in the language experience approach than children who receive instruction only in basal reader materials. Language experience activities were conducted with all reading groups in the experimental class for three days every two weeks. Group experience stories and word bank activities were not done with the control group which used only basal materials. A factorial analysis of variance model was selected to analyze the data on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test on the main effects of type of instruction, sex, and classification of students. No significant difference at the .05 level was found for the null hypotheses tested; however, a slight non-significant difference was found in the mean scores of the target children in both classes with the language experience group having an 80% higher mean score than the control group