Computer-assisted oral reading helps third graders learn vocabulary better than a classroom control – about as well as one-on-one human-assisted oral reading.

Abstract

We describe results on helping children learn vocabulary during computer-assisted oral reading. This paper focuses on one aspect - vocabulary learning - of a larger study comparing computerized oral reading tutoring to classroom instruction and one-on-one human tutoring. 144 students in second and third grade were assigned to one of three conditions: (a) classroom instruction, (b) classroom instruction with one-on-one tutoring replacing part of the school day, and (c) computer instruction replacing part of the school day. For second graders, there were no significant differences between treatments in word comprehension gains. For third graders, however, the computer tutor showed an advantage over classroom instruction for gains in word comprehension (p = 0.042, effect size = 0.56) as measured by the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. One-on-one human tutoring also showed an advantage over classroom instruction alone (p = 0.039, effect size = 0.72). Computer tutoring and one-on-one human tutoring were not significantly different in terms of word comprehension gains.