The present study was undertaken in the hope that our Reading Accelerator might promote reading rate and comprehension, especially the former.
Our Reading Accelerator used in this study was made on the model of the Reading Accelerator by Science Research Associates of Chicago arid was adapted to suit reading condition of this country.
A moving curtain, installed on the Reading Accelerator, hides the plane of this instrument by covering parts of it at the definite rate, which the Ss are able to adjust in ten speed steps.
One hundred and one 5th grade schoolchildren of two elementary schools in Tokyo were devided into five groups (A3, B3, Al, B1 and C), which were equivalent in terms of intelligence and reading abilities. Before and after practice sessions, which were about three months long, each subject was tested for his reading rate and comprehension.
Group A3 (18 children) and Group Al (13 children) practiced with the instrument, the former practiced three times a week, the latter once a week. Group B3 (17 children) and Group Bl (15 children) practiced without the instrument, the former Practiced reading three times a week, and the latter once a week. Group C (38 children) had no experimental reading.
All Ss except Group C were asked to read silently a mimeographed story twice. They were asked to try the Outline-Comprehension-Test after the first practice of reading and to try the Detailed- Comprehension-Test which contain 10 questions after the second practice.
During each practice the experimenter measured S´s reading rate and comprehension. Experiments were done individually rather than in groups.
Each subject had eight practice sessions. In each session he read one of eight stories, which were nearly equal in difficulty. The difficulty of stories was examined by means of the Cloze procedure. To compare eye-movement in reading with and without the accelerator, the eye-movements of one subject, a 5th grade child, were recorded by an electro- oculographic method (or Galvanometric method) in both conditions.
Results:
1. During the practice period the Ss´ reading rate made progress on the whole though the differences between the four groups were slight. Increases in reading rate of Group Al and B1 were the largest.
2. When test scores before and after practice sessions were compared, the following results were found. The Practice Group (Group A and B) lead in the gains made in reading rate when compared with the Group C.
3. In reading rates group Al and B1 took a pronounced lead over Group A3 and B3 who had practiced three times a week, showing that Al and B1 training was more effective than A3 and B3 training.
4. In comprehension score no significant difference was found among groups.
5. In comp. aring Group Al with Group Bl, progress in the gain of Gi oup Al who h; d practiced with the Reading Accelerator was more remarkable than that of Group Bl, without the instrument.
6. There was no significant difference between the gain of Group A3 and that of Group B3.
7. The eye-movements in reading with the Reading Accelerator were more smooth than freereading without the instrument. There were fewer stops with the Reading Accelerator.
These results lead us to the conclusion that one can accelerate one´s reading rate in a few months if one practices reading with our Reading Accelerator, and that the distributed practice is more effective than the mass practice.
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