Differences in poor readers' abilities to identify high‐frequency words in isolation and context

Abstract

Abstract This study examined individual differences in poor readers' abilities to identify high‐frequency words presented in isolation and context. Poor readers from a university reading clinic and from fourth grade classrooms were classified as accurate and inaccurate word identifiers on the basis of a word list recognition task. Subjects were also tested on their abilities to identify those same words in the context of a story. Results indicated that all poor readers identified more high‐frequency words in context than in isolation. Within the clinic group of poor readers, a significant difference was found between the accurate and inaccurate, identifiers in recognizing words in context. These findings are discussed in terms of a context‐oriented approach of word identification instruction and assessment.