Lauren Leslie

Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor readers' memory of text.

We investigated how prior knowledge influences the amount of short-term nonverbal and verbal memory and long-term retention in students of high and low ability in reading comprehension. Sixty-four junior high students were divided into four equal-sized groups on the basis of preassessed reading ability (high and low) and preassessed amount of existing prior knowledge about baseball (high and low). Each subject silently read an account of a half inning of a baseball game. After reading, each subject recalled the account nonverbally by moving figures and verbally by retelling the story. After an interpolated task, they summarized the game and sorted passage sentences for idea importance. There was a significant main effect for prior knowledge on all measures. No interactions between prior knowledge and ability were found. These results delineate the powerful effect of prior knowledge.

THE EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND ORAL READING ACCURACY ON MISCUES AND COMPREHENSION

The effects of prior knowledge (high, low) and oral reading accuracy (95% +, 90–94%) on miscues and comprehension were examined by requiring 57 third-grade average readers to read an expository passage orally. The children had either high prior knowledge of the topic, defined as completing a classroom instructional unit and verified by a free-association test, or low prior knowledge. Children with high prior knowledge made fewer miscues which resulted in meaning loss (p < .05), and their miscues were less graphically similar to the text word (p < .01) than children with low prior knowledge. Also, children with high prior knowledge correctly answered more comprehension questions of all types – textually explicit (p < .01), textually implicit (p < .05), and scriptally implicit (p < .001) – than children with low prior knowledge. Support for an interactive-compensatory model of reading is discussed.

Factors affecting children's reading of rimes : reading ability, word frequency, and rime-neighborhood size

Beginning readers were studied in 2 experiments to examine the influence of reading ability, word frequency, and rime-neighborhood size (the number of single-synllable words with the same rime) on word and nonword recognition. Forty 1st and 2nd graders read 53 words and 27 nonwords containing rimes from different-size neighborhoods. Children reading at or below a 2nd-grade level were less affected by rime-neighborhoods were read correctly more often in lists and stories than rimes form moderate or small neighborhoods, particularly in low-frequency words. As children learn to read, they become increasingly sensitive to rime-neighborhood size.

Changes in Oral Reading Strategies as a Function of Quantities of Miscues.

Changes in oral reading miscues as a function of quantity of miscues were studied by evaluating the tape-recorded oral reading of 30 eighth-grade children reading passages of sixth-, eighth-, eleventh-, and thirteenth-grade readability. Children reading with 95-99% accuracy tended to make NONSENSE errors on unfamiliar words; whereas, children reading with 90-94% accuracy omitted such words. Results showed that reading with 90-94% accuracy resulted in a greater percentage of MEANING LOSS errors than reading with 95-99% accuracy. Results imply that reading from materials where fewer than 5% error occurs may result in more efficient use of the cue systems in reading. The analysis of oral reading miscues (Goodman, K., 1965) as a methodolgy for the study of reading has received much attention. While the assumptions underlying miscue analysis are being challenged (e.g., Mosenthal, 1976), others are focusing on the refinement of the methods of study (e.g.. Hood, 1976), and on the identification of factors affecting the types of miscues made by readers (e.g., Cohen, 1974). One factor which has been cited as affecting miscue type is the difficulty level of the selection for the reader. McCracken (1967) suggests that a good reader in sixth-grade may make: (a) no errors when reading from a third-grade reader; (b) repetitions when reading from a fourth-grade reader; (c) substitutions when reading from sixthand seventh-grade materials but will correct the errors; and (d) uncorrected substitutions when reading eighthand ninth-grade materials. The effect of oral reading accuracy on the quality of miscues made was also described by Y. Goodman (1972). The oral reading miscues of the one child studied showed that as the number of miscues increased the number which resulted in a loss of meaning also increased (Goodman, Y., 1972). Despite these reports, most researchers have not controlled for the oral reading accuracy level of subjects. Thus, studies may attribute miscue differences between two groups of subjects to characteristics of the children (e.g., average readers vs. below-average readers) when the groups are reading at different accuracy levels (e.g., Weber, 1970). It is likely that some of these miscue differences are a function of the accuracy levels at which the children were reading. The first purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of oral reading accuracy on the types of miscues made by readers. Another issue surrounding oral reading miscue analysis lies in the relationship of miscues to comprehension. It seems necessary to identify the types of miscues which affect comprehension. The second purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship of oral reading accuracy (and resulting miscue types) to comprehension as measured by the cloze technique (Bormuth, 1968).

THE USE OF ORTHOGRAPHIC KNOWLEDGE IN BEGINNING READING

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between word recognition ability, knowledge of orthographic structures, and use of orthographic knowledge in word recognition. Fifty-six first and second graders were administered a word recognition test, two tests of orthographic knowledge, and two search tasks. The results indicated that when searching for multiple word targets children with word recognition levels of less than 2–2 searched similarly through all fields, whereas children with word recognition levels of 2–2+ searched faster through pseudowords and nonwords than through words. When searching for members of a category, children with word recognition levels below 2–1 searched faster through nonwords and pseudowords than through words providing no evidence for the use of orthography in word search. Children with word recognition levels above 2–1 searched faster through nonwords than through pseudowords and words, demonstrating a generalized effect of orthographic structure.

Recognition of Orthographic Structure during Beginning Reading

The development of knowledge of orthographic structure among beginning readers was examined by testing their ability to discern which word in a pair looked most like a word. One hundred forty-five children in preschool, kindergarten, first and second grades were given three tasks measuring knowledge of orthographic structure and tests of letter, numeral and word recognition on two occasions six months apart. One orthographic task assessed the knowledge that words did not contain numbers; another assessed knowledge that certain consonant clusters do not occur in English. Results showed that word-recognition ability, rather than grade level, correlated highly (.80) with orthographic knowledge. Letter recognition correlated (.66) with knowledge that words do not contain numbers. The results of a discriminant-function analysis indicated an early second-grade level of word recognition predicted above-chance performance on the third orthographic task. The results were discussed in relation to an interactive-compensatory model of reading.

THE USE OF GRAPHIC AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION BY AVERAGE AND BELOW-AVERAGE READERS

The use of graphic and contextual information by average and below-average readers was inferred by examining their oral reading miscues. It was hypothesized that inconsistent findings of previous studies comparing children of differing reading abilities were due to unequal miscue rates between the groups. The present study equated miscue rate of average and below-average readers and examined the effects of different miscue rates on the use of graphic and contextual information. Forty second-grade average readers and forty below-average readers in third to sixth grades read two selections of second grade readability. Three levels of miscues per hundred words which span the functional reading levels were examined: 1–5, 6–10, and 11–15. The results show that miscue rate effects the use of contextual information: miscues which are not syntactically correct increase as miscue rate increases, and miscues which are syntactically correct but change the authors meaning decrease as miscue rate increases. Below-average readers made proportionally more miscues which changed the authors meaning and showed greater dependence on graphic cues; a dependence which was unsuccessful in decoding unknown words. Average readers made proportionally more miscues which made no changes in the authors meaning. Instructional implications were discussed.

A Developmental-Interactive Approach to Reading Assessment.

A developmental approach to reading assessment that follow from an interactive model of reading is described and illustrated. Four developmental levels of learning to read are presented: emergent reading, beginning reading, consolidation, and reading to learn new concepts. Each level is described, and procedures for assessing salient aspects of the level are explained. Examples illustrate how oral reading miscues, reading rate, and comprehension in a variety of contexts can provide clues to how children construct meaning from text.