Effects of Two Error-Correction Procedures on Oral Reading Errors

Abstract

The effects of two error-correction procedures on oral reading errors and a control condition were compared in an alternating treatments design with three students who were moderately mentally retarded. The two procedures evaluated were word supply and sentence repeat. The teacher supplied the reader with the correct word immediately after each student error during the word-supply condition. During the sentence-repeat condition, the teacher supplied the correct word immediately after each student error, required the student to repeat the correct word, complete reading the sentence, and then reread the entire sentence. Both word-supply and sentence-repeat procedures were effective in reducing oral reading errors when compared to a no-intervention control condition, but sentence repeat was superior to word supply. In addition, a similar relationship was found between the two procedures when the students were tested for retention on the same reading passages a week later. These results show that sentence repeat is more effective than is the commonly used word-supply procedure in remediating the oral reading errors of students with moderate mental retardation.