On Interpreting the Error Pattern in Beginning Reading

Abstract

The error pattern in beginning reading was examined from two perspectives: the location of a misread consonant or vowel segment within the syllable and the phonetic relationship between a consonant or vowel and a misreading of it. The first analysis showed, as earlier work had led us to expect, that consonants in the final position in a syllable were more frequently misread than initial consonants. In contrast, the position of a vowel within the syllable had no effect on the frequency with which it was misread. With regard to the second analysis, consonant errors were found to bear a close phonetic relationship to their target sounds, while errors on vowels were essentially unrelated, phonetically, to the vowel as written. The striking differences, demonstrated by the results of both analyses, between the consonants and the vowels were attributed to the different linguistic functions of the two types of segments and to their different representations in English orthography. These findings underscore the importance of nonvisual, language-related cognitive operations in reading acquisition.