READING IN ENGLISH: INSIGHTS FROM INTERMEDIATE ESOL ADULTS
Author(s):
Sherman, Nancy Jo
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ed.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : Memphis State University, 1982.
Pages:
146
Language:
English
Abstract:
Purpose. With the assumption that reading is an active psycholinguistic process, a descriptive study was conducted to explore the oral reading in English by adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students. A psycholinguistic reading model and miscue analysis, begun by Goodman (1964) and developed over the past two decades, have provided valuable insights into the nature of first language reading. Their principles and methods are also applicable to second language reading (Goodman & Goodman, 1978; Hudelson, 1981). The following questions were posed in this study: Does Goodman's model of reading describe reading in English by adult ESOL students? What are the patterns of reading behavior that are common to adults from different home languages (Arabic, Hmong, Laotian, and Russian), who are functioning in English on an intermediate level? Procedures. Twenty adult readers were selected for the study, five from each of the four language groups. All had recently come to the United States and had to function in English outside the home where their first language was spoken. All readers were identified as low-intermediate speakers of English by the English Language Skills Assessment (Lee, 1980), a general language test in a reading context. The students were asked to read aloud an intermediate level story from an ESOL text and then retell the story in their own words. All deviations from the text (miscues) were recorded and used as data. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively by the methods of miscue analysis using the Goodman Taxonomy of Reading Miscues (GTRM) (Goodman & Goodman, 1978). Reader strategies were scrutinized, classified and analyzed. Salient patterns were examined individually, within language groups and collectively, to identify those which would have the greatest implications for ESOL curriculum and instruction. Findings. General findings were: (1) The gross number of "errors" was not an appropriate measure of reading proficiency for second language readers. (2) In general, if a miscue were syntactically and semantically acceptable, it was not corrected. (3) Over half the miscues were syntactically acceptable, but few were semantically acceptable, and the rate of syntactically acceptable miscues far exceeded that of semantically acceptable miscues. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI