Effects of Chunked Reading among Learning Disabled Students: An Experimental Comparison of Computer and Traditional Chunked Passages

Previous studies have indicated that chunking/phrasing of sentences into smaller groups of meaningfully related words enhances retention and comprehension. This investigation was designed to assess the effects of two methods of presenting chunked reading. Thirty learning disabled tenth- and eleventh-grade students were assigned to three groups. One training group received chunked passages displayed on the screen using computer assisted instruction (CAI); the other was administered chunked passages in the traditional mode. The control group used CAI with non-chunked passages. A posttest revealed that the CAI chunked group showed higher gains. However, the CAI chunked group's mean score was not significant when compared to the traditional chunked group. Both chunked groups were superior to the CAI non-chunked group. Thus, it was concluded that separation of reading material into meaningfully related words does significantly enhance reading comprehension and the method of presentation is not significant.