Through wide independent reading students learn many more words than teachers could possibly teach them. Struggling readers are often reluctant to read which results in limited word encounters and insufficient vocabulary growth (Ebbers & Denton, 2008). As students’ progress through schooling they are faced with texts increasing in level of content and complexity, presenting a considerable challenge for struggling readers who often face difficulties inferring the meaning of new words from context (Ebbers & Denton, 2008; Balchowics & Fisher, 2014). The struggling reader may be able to decode the letters into a word, however, if they are unable to decipher the meaning of a word or words in a set text they tend to get frustrated (Konza, 2011). Continued frustrating experiences such as this will result in the student avoiding reading altogether, further limiting their ability to build vocabulary, fluency and word knowledge, and resulting in what has been termed the ‘The Matthew EffectMatthew Effect’ (Konza, 2011).
Challenges faced by struggling readers |