Analyzing Oral Reading Errors to Improve Instruction.

Abstract

IN ATTEMPTS to improve reading programs for dis advantaged students, one problem that frequently emerges is how to pin point areas of the curriculum that need strengthening. The analysis of oral reading errors is a valuable method for gaining this information. Advantages of this technique over the use of standardized tests are 1) that the child deals with connected text similar to that encountered in everyday reading, and 2) that the child must generate his or her own answers, rather than simply choosing among alternatives in a multiple choice test. At the Kamehameha Early Edu cation Program we work primarily with children from Hawaiian families, speakers of Hawaiian Islands dialect. Through an analysis of the oral reading errors made by fifteen of our second graders, we were able to identify problem areas that might be remediated by changes in our curriculum. By looking at the types of errors which distinguished good from poor readers, as deter mined by standardized test scores, we gained an idea of the kind of training needed to improve the poor readers' achievement. Features of category definitions used by Biemiller (1970), Clay (1968), Kagan (1965), and Schale (1966) were incorporated into the code used to classify the children's reading errors. Categories were grouped according to whether the error made showed 1) use of context only, 2) use of visual-phonic information only, 3) both, or 4) neither.