Oral miscue analysis of grade 3 French immersion children learning to read in English

Sinclair, Helen R. (1987) Oral miscue analysis of grade 3 French immersion children learning to read in English. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (21MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

The English reading strategies of Grade 3 French immersion children were studied to discover any changes between those used before reading instruction in English began and after six months of reading instruction. - Nine children reading at grade level were selected and tested in October, 1986 and again in March, 1987 using the Reading Miscue Inventory devised by Goodman and Burke (1972). The first text used was at the Grade 3 level and the second at the Grade 4 level to minimize the effects of text difficulty. -- At the first testing the children relied heavily on graphic and sound cues, using semantic and syntactic cues infrequently. The low scores in the categories of comprehension and the use of grammatical relationships suggested that they were not reading efficiently. At the second testing, while the children still used graphic and phonic cues to a great extent, the use of semantic and syntactic cues increased. These findings, in conjunction with improved scores in comprehension and the use of grammatical relationships, demonstrated an improvement in the quality of the children's reading. -- No instances of French semantics or syntax interfering with the English reading of the children were found, but there were cases of French pronunciation of parts or all of English words. French interference miscues dropped from thirty-four at the first testing to five at the second testing, again indicating an improvement in the reading quality. -- Some possible explanations were given for the changing reading strategies of the children. The emphasis of the reading instruction in French was on phonics, and in English on context. Studies have shown that the type of reading instruction children receive affects the miscues they make and this is one factor to be considered. Another factor which may have affected the changes was the children's progress through the stages of reading development. The stages which Cohen (1974-5) proposed uphold the findings of the present study. The children's developmental stage may also have affected the reading strategies they used. -- The results of the study were compared to bottom-up, top-down, interactive, and interactive-compensatory models of reading. The best fit was found to be the interactive-compensatory model.

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