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published_or_final_version / abstract / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze teacher interactions when students read a text during one-to-one literacy tutoring sessions in order to identify features of their interactions and describe how these help further the students' literacy learning. The sociocultural nature of learning was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The research was conducted using a qualitative case study approach. A teacher and one group of students were observed during an academic semester. Data were collected from the following sources: lesson plans, interviews with participants, field notes, Reading Miscue inventory, and audio and video tapes of the tutoring sessions. Only the reading experiences of the tutoring sessions were analyzed. The results showed the types of teaching and learning strategies used by the teacher and students, and changes in the students' reading strategies. The findings suggested that the changes in the students' reading strategies might be due to the teacher's efforts at critical learning moments during their interactions, to guide the students into making use of their intuitive knowledge of language cues. The results of the study reflect the need for educators to focus on the nature of teacher-student interactions during literacy tutoring and the way in which teachers scaffold students' learning of literacy concepts and strategies. While scaffolds are necessary to a child's learning, what is done in these scaffolds is more critical to moving the child toward independence.

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in oral and silent reading comprehension performance with passages of varying length through the use of both a questioning and a retelling format. In analyzing reading comprehension performance scores, answers were sought for the following questions: (1) What differences between oral and silent reading comprehension performance can be identified with passages of varying length when question responses are the measure of comprehension? (2) What differences between oral and silent reading comprehension performance can be identified with passages of varying length when retelling scores are the measure of comprehension? (3) In either oral or silent reading, to what extent is the information sought by means of traditional questions supplied by the reader during a retelling activity? To answer these questions, 80 sixth grade students from one public school located in a southwestern metropolitan area were randomly assigned to eight treatment groups. Subjects were of average ability as measured by a standardized test of silent reading achievement. A story with a sixth grade readability level was considered the long passage. The first portion of this same story was considered the short passage. All subjects completed an experimenter constructed instrument designed to reveal preferences for oral or silent reading in various situations. The 40 subjects randomly assigned to the question treatment groups read the assigned passage, either long or short, in the assigned mode of presentation, either oral or silent, and responded to questions asked orally by the experimenter. The 40 subjects randomly assigned to the retelling treatment groups also read the assigned passage in the assigned mode of presentation and retold the story to the experimenter. Open-ended questions were asked by the experimenter in order to elicit additional information. Following the retelling, the questions used with the question treatment groups were asked of the subjects in the retelling treatment groups. Access to the story was not allowed during retelling or questioning. Finally, subjects in the retelling groups were asked to react to various vocabulary items when again shown the story. Findings based on the statistical analysis of the data gathered in this study were as follows: (1) No significant differences were found between oral and silent reading comprehension of long and short passages when either questioning or retelling was the measure of reading comprehension performance. (2) Significant differences were found in performance between the questioning and retelling groups on questioning tasks when scores for the retelling groups were based only on information supplied during spontaneous retelling and open-ended probing. (3) Significant differences were found favoring a preference for silent over oral reading in various reading situations. (4) In the questioning condition, silent reading of passages was significantly faster than oral reading of passages. (5) No significant differences were found in the words per second reading rate for passages in the retelling condition. The findings of this study supported these conclusions: (1) Regardless of mode of comprehension assessment, students are able to perform equally well after reading orally or silently. (2) Varying the length of passages does not affect performance in reading comprehension tasks. (3) Different modes of comprehension assessment do not necessarily yield the same kinds of information about reading ability. (4) Students prefer silent reading as an activity but that preference is not reflected in superior silent reading performance. (5) Students, when aware of the mode of comprehension assessment to be used, may make differential adjustments in their rate of reading.

Miscue analysis and eye-movement recording technology are combined in this dissertation to explore the reading processes of adult, skilled readers. The combination of approaches forms a new reading research methodology termed Eye Movement Miscue Analysis, or EMMA, that provides a powerful view of the reading process. Miscue analysis, the psycholinguistic analysis of unexpected responses in a reader's oral text, provides a verbal dimension of data for reading research. Similarly, eye-movement recording, which shows precisely where in a text a reader looks, provides a visual dimension of data. When these two research approaches are combined, both verbal and visual data are analyzed, resulting in a powerful, multi-dimensional view of the reading process. This dissertation focuses on adult readers' eye movements made during the production of miscues and other oral reading phenomena. Patterns of eye movements relative to substitutions, omissions, insertions, partials, and repetitions are described, analyzed, and compared. Results of the analysis are discussed in terms of whether current causal explanations of miscues are augmented or refuted. Original conceptions about the reading process formed as a result of this research are developed and placed in existing theoretical frameworks. Major findings include that the eye movements relative to different types of miscues and other oral reading phenomena exhibit different patterns, and both eye movements and miscues, and the relationship between them, are functions of comprehension. Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, most miscued words are examined, and examined thoroughly, before the miscue is produced; miscues are not caused by careless or reckless reading, or visually skipping words. Implications for theories and models of the reading process are discussed, and areas of needed research are described.

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The relationship between reading and time in the oral reading of an authentic, connected text is conceptualized using a hydrological "flow" metaphor in this theoretical dissertation. The concept of reading fluency in oral and silent reading is critically examined. The concepts of "reading fluency" and "reading rate" have historically been part of a word identification view of reading. In this view, the act of reading is defined as the ability to identify words. Accordingly, reading fluency is characterized as rapid and accurate word identification. In an alternative sociopsycholinguistic transactional view (the view taken in this dissertation) reading is described as a meaning construction process in which a reader constructs a personal meaning by transacting with a written text. The concept of reading fluency is supplanted with a hydrological reading-as-flow metaphor. In this dissertation, a deconstruction of "reading fluency" is initially provided. Next, a definition of "reading flow" is offered along with a procedure for its documentation. The procedure makes extensive use of miscue analysis. This is followed by a fine-grained analysis of reading and time relationships for several readers reading orally. Major findings include that oral reading rate varies throughout a text in response to readers' employment of cognitive reading strategies; reading rate varies for both effective and proficient readers; the variability of reading rate can be represented as a quantity. Implications for a theory of the reading process, a theory of reading instruction, and teacher education are included.

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