Enhancing an English language learning fifth-grade student's sight-word reading with a time-delay taped-words intervention

A multiple-baseline design across word lists was used to investigate the effects of a modified taped-words intervention on Dolch word reading of a fifth-grade student who speaks English as a second language. The student completed a daily self-managed intervention in which he listened to lists of 30 sight-words while reading along, attempting to read the word before he heard it on the tape. As the word list was repeated, the word intervals were modified in accordance with time-delay procedures. Across three lists of 30 words, immediate and steady gains in words read correctly within 3 s were found after the time-delay taped-words intervention was implemented. The student maintained words that he learned from previous lists once he was no longer listening to those tapes. The discussion calls attention to the need for the development and empirical validation of reading interventions for students who are English language learners and provides directions for future research.