Purpose of the Study

The first purpose of this study is to measure the effectiveness of using oral reading, compared with silent reading, as a reading method to improve ESL students’ reading comprehension when they read in English. While oral reading is widely used in ESL classes, the effectiveness of using oral reading to improve ESL students’ reading comprehension is required to be examined.

The second purpose of this study is to examine the correlation between students’ first languages and their reading comprehension when they read passages aloud and silently in English. In ESL classes, students’ language backgrounds may differ. When ESL students use both oral and silent reading in English learning, it is important to know the impact of ESL students’ different first language backgrounds on their reading comprehension.

Research Questions

Through this descriptive study, the following questions will be addressed to determine the effectiveness of using oral reading in ESL classes:

1. After reading a passage aloud, will ESL students’ reading comprehension improve, compared with using read silently?

2. Will ESL students’ first languages affect their reading comprehension when they use oral reading in English?

3. Will ESL students’ first languages affect their reading comprehension when they use silent reading in English?