Oral Reading Strategies among High School Boys of Australian and Italian Descent

Abstract

A sample of 101 Year 8 and Year 9 boys of Australian and Italian descent was divided into quartile groups according to silent reading comprehension scores. The students' oral reading was recorded on reel-to-reel tape and the resulting miscues categorized using Goodman and Burke's criteria. Accuracy and self-correction rates were also analysed along with real-word and non-word corrections. In addition a comparison of educational and occupational attainments of the mothers and fathers of both Australian and Italian populations was made. All groups used semantic and syntactic cues quite well on easy passages, but as text difficulty increased, more use was made of the graphophonic cueing system, with the higher ability groups retaining the semantic and syntactic cueing systems longer. When oral reading accuracy was examined at the four comprehension levels, the lowest level Italian group read more accurately than the equivalent Australian students.