Contextual facilitation in children's oral reading in relation to grade and decoding skill

Abstract

This research investigated children's use of context to facilitate word recognition and comprehension-monitoring processes in the oral reading of connected prose as a function of grade level and decoding skill. Results indicated no overall contextual facilitation of word recognition accuracy, even in less skilled decoders, although there was evidence that less skilled decoders were assisted by context in decoding some content words. Children read word lists 50% more slowly than comparable selections of prose. The adoption of different and compensatory reading speed strategies in children's reading of prose and word lists renders the oral reading task an insensitive test of the contextual facilitation of word recognition accuracy. A qualitative analysis of the errors made in reading the prose passage showed that skilled decoders made (relative to less skilled decoders) a lower proportion of reading errors which, as first uttered, violated prior context, and a higher rate of contextually obligatory self-corrections, thus making a higher overall rate of contextually acceptable oral reading errors. These data were interpreted as suggesting that children's oral reading incorporates processing that occurs after lexical access, and that skilled decoders use context more effectively to monitor comprehension. In an oral reading task, this may counteract the tendency of less skilled decoders to rely more on context in the process of word recognition.