An investigation of the reading strategies of grade one children
Date
1975
Authors
Saba, Allison McBain
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Abstract
This study was conducted during February and March, 1975 with six Grade One children at Bayview Elementary School, Cobble Hill, British Columbia. Through miscue analysis, the oral reading of three ineffective readers was compared with that of three effective readers, in order to identify specific functions which the ineffective readers were not performing adequately. The reasons for the deficiency of these functions were investigated and described in terms of psycholinguistic reading theory. Instructional techniques designed to develop these deficient functions were outlined.
Selected by their classroom teacher for this study, Group A consisted of three boys designated as ineffective readers. Group B consisted of two boys and a girl designated as effective readers. The subjects were six years old, with the exception of one boy in Group B who was five years, eleven months old. They were Caucasian except for one boy in Group A who was a Native Indian.
Ten perceptual and language tests, plus a detailed examination of oral language, preceded the miscue analysis to screen out any subjects with disabilities severe enough to affect the analysis, and to provide data with which to investigage relationships between perceptual, language and reading abilities. The relationship of socio-economic status to language ability and reading achievement was examined.
A modified version of the Burke and Goodman Reading Miscue Inventory (1972) was used for the miscue analysis of the oral reading of 24 reading inventory selections. Miscues were placed into categories to produce data which, through interpretation, revealed clear-cut differences between effective and ineffective reading approaches, specific areas in which the ineffective readers were not functioning adequately, and reasons for these malfunctions.
Comparisons of the perceptual, language and miscue data showed that, for the six subjects in this study, visual and auditory perceptual abilities were not highly related to reading achievement, with the exception of listening comprehension, which is a language skill as well as an auditory perception skill. Language ability was most highly related to reading achievement. Socio-economic status was found to be related to both language development and reading achievement.
Teaching strategies were outlined for each subject. They were designed to correct specific malfunctioning areas and also to enhance strengths which were revealed by the miscue analysis.
Implications for teaching which emerged from this study were that diagnosis, grouping and· evaluation could be done more efficiently through miscue analysis than by present testing methods, that teaching strategies based on miscue analysis insights and on psycholinguistic reading theory would be more successful than current teaching methods.
Suggestions were made for further research into Native Indian usage of English, a proposed simplified version of miscue analysis, and continued miscue analysis studies of the six subjects in this present study.