Dynamic Text Display for Learning to Read a Second Language

Abstract

A method is described in which sentences are presented in a dynamic visual display. A television monitor is used to present simultaneously the visual and auditory versions of a sentence, with each of its successive visual and auditory syllables yoked in parallel; the onset of each visual syllable is synchronized with the onset of each syllable as it is heard through the auditory channel. The result is a sentence which "grows" left-to-right across the screen, one syllable at a time, in "visual rhythm." In an experiment, the subjects were three groups of secondary-school students learning Spanish as a second language. In training sessions, the rhythmic group saw the sentences in "visual rhythm," the unrhythmic group saw the same sentences but in static visual display, and the control group had no exposure to either visual-auditory display. Before and after training, all groups provided pre-test and post-test measures of oral reading fluency. The dependent measure was pre-test to post-test relative change in judged reading fluency. The results favored the rhythmic group.