Reading Errors among Skilled and Unskilled Adult Readers

Abstract

Abstract Understanding adult reading behavior would contribute much to the development of materials and instructional methods. This research used the cloze procedure to compare the types of errors made by skilled and unskilled adult readers with materials at varying levels of difficulty. Both groups of readers made more grammatically unacceptable responses as materials became more difficult, and the effect was stronger for unskilled readers. These findings suggest that the structure of language may have an impact on reading difficulty, and it is suggested that beginning reading materials be drawn from the learner's own language in order to simplify the process of learning to read.