A Study of the Effects of Direct Instruction in Paradimatic Language Responding on the Reading Skills of Fifth-Grade Students

Date of Graduation

Spring 1977

Degree

Master of Science in Education in Literacy

Department

Reading, Foundations, and Technology

Committee Chair

James Layton

Abstract

The intent of this study was to answer the following question: after thirty twenty-minute periods of daily direct instruction in paradigmatic language responding, will students who receive direct instruction in paradigmatic language responding score significantly greater in vocabulary achievement, reading comprehension achievement, paradigmatic language responding achievement, and the combined skills of reading achievement than students who receive traditional instruction? It was hypothesized that the students who received direct instruction in paradigmatic language responding would score significantly greater in vocabulary achievement, reading comprehension achievement, paradigmatic language responding achievement, and the combined skills of reading achievement than students who received traditional instruction. Participants were thirty fifth-grade students selected from two rooms. Fifteen students from one room were matched according to I.Q. scores with fifteen students from the other room. All participants fell within the normal I.Q. range and were administered the Nelson Reading Test and a paradigmatic language responding test as pretests. Group A (experimental) received daily instruction in paradigmatic language responding for twenty-minute periods over a six week period. Group B (control) received traditional instruction for the same period of time. Both groups were administered the Nelson Reading Test and the paradigmatic language responding test at the end of the study as posttests. The researcher found in this study that if direct instruction in paradigmatic language responding was given to the group of fifth-grade students used in this study, there would be a significant improvement in measures of vocabulary achievement, reading comprehension achievement, paradigmatic language responding achievement, and the combined skills of reading achievement as measured by the Nelson Reading Test and the paradigmatic language responding test.

Subject Categories

Other Education

Copyright

© Mary McCallon Rhodes

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Dissertation/Thesis

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