UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

MISCUE ANALYSIS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO GROUPS OF PUPILS IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL

LEE POH LE

FPP 1995 9

MISCUE ANALYSIS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO GROUPS OF PUPILS IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL

By

LEE POH LE

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the

Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia.

June 1996

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wou ld lik e t o extend my s i ncer e appr ec i at i on t o

a l l thos e who have kind ly r ende r ed me the i r assist ance

in one way or another in wr i ting this thesis .

S pecia l t hanks g o t o Dr . S a li Zaliha Mustapha , the

cha i rman of my supervisory comm i tt ee, and Dr . Shar i f ah

Mohd Nor and Puan Hajah Nor a Mohamed Nor who have

kind ly d evoted much t i me and patience to he l p in the

writing of t his t hesis .

r wou l d a ls o lik e t o thank the Educat i on Ministry

and th� Fed e r a l Ter r i t ory Educat i on Depar tment for

gr anting me the permission t o carry out my r esearch in

the schoo l . Specia l thanks a lso go to the pup i ls of

Sek o l ah Menengah Bandar Bar u Seri Petaling and

Mr Ph i l i p r.oo Kim S eng ( AMN ) , the Principa l of S ek o l ah

Menengah Bandar Baru S eri Petal ing, who have not only

granted me the permissio n to carry out the r esearch i n

the school , but have al�o voluntar ily helped me i n much

o f my data co l l ec t i on work .

Of cours e , I d o not leave out my coursemat es, Mr

Fr eddie Low and Miss Ting Su H i e i n my express i on of

grat i t ud e . They have been of tr emend ous help to me .

i i

Thanks also go to Dr. Zain Mohd Ali for

introducing me to this Master of Science (TESL)

programnle. Without him, this thesis would not have been

written.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest

appreciation to my two daughters, Evelyn and Joyce for

their patience, encouragement and sacrifices to help

write this thesis.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PaC,1e ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i i LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES v i ii ABSTRACT i x ABSTRAK xi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II

III

cont ext of the Research Problem ..... 1 st at ement of the Problem ......... ... 7 Obje c t i v es of the S tudy ............. 9 S i gnificance of the Study ...... ..... 1 1 Limi t a t i ons o f t h e Study ............ 1 5 Operational Definitions ............. 17

Average Readers ................ 17 S e c ond Language (L2) Learning .. 18 Nati onal Primary Schools ....... 18 N a t i onal-Type Primary Schools .. 18 Reading Stra t egi es ............. 1 9 Interlanguage In t erference .. ... 20

LITERATURE REVIEW • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reading :A Psycholingui sti c Process . Bottom-up T op-down Vi ews ........... . Miscues and Reading Strategi es ..... . Miscues and Contextual Cues ........ . Language Cues and Reading stra t egi es ......................... . Miscues and the Proc ess of Reading Acquisi t i on ................ . Pro f icient and Less Pro f ic i ent

2 1 2 1 23 2 6 31

34

3 5

Readers ...... . ...................... 36 Retelling ........................... 40 The Reading Process and Text Struct ure ...................... 42

RESEARCH Sampling

The The The

DESIGN AND METHODOLOGy ..... .. .. . . ....................... School .................... . Subjeats .................. . T ext ...................... .

Prev i ew

iv

47 47 47 48 5 0 51

IV

V

Page

Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1 Cloze Passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Reading P assage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Data Gathering Proc edure .. . . . . . . .... 5 9

Groundwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 9 The Invest i gati on . . .. . . . . . ..... 60

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSS ION OF F IND INGS . R esults of the Miscue Analysis ..... .

QUestion 1 .. . ................. . Question 2 • . • • • . • . . • . . . . . . • . . . . Question 3 • . . • • . • . . . . • . . . . . . . . . Question 4 • • • . . . • . • . . • . • . • • • . . . Question 5 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . •

Examples of Two Readers ............ . a ) Yap • • • • • • • • • . • • • . • . • . • . . • . . . b ) Kho o ....................... .

Conclusi on about the Two Readers ... .

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ............ . P egagogical Impli cat i on ............ . S uggesti ons f or Further Research ... . Concl usi ons ........................ .

70 7 0 72 7 5 90 94 97

103 103 116 12 6

128 131 13 5 136

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

ADDIT IONAL REFERENCES . . . . . . . .... ........... 144

APPENDIX

A Cloze Passage • . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

B Reading S electi on .................. . 1 5 1

C Miscue Analysis: Quest i onna i re f or Tea chers . ...................... . 1 5 6

D P r ev i ew Exerc i se ................... . 158

E Reading S ele ct i on -Teacher's Copy ..................... . 15 9

v

F

G

H

I

J

H

VITA

Reading Mis cue Inv ento ry Quest ions .......................... .

Reading S election -Marked Sampl e ...................... .

A Sample Analysis of Miscues -Affendi (NP ) ...................... . .

Classific ation of Miscues -in the P a s s age from Maimunah

Re ading Mis c ue Inv entory Coding Sheet ....................... .

Additional Tables .................. .

. .. . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

vi

Page

1 6 5

1 67

173

17 4

17 5

17 6

18 1

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Use o f Syntac t i c and S emant i c Cues

Page

as Strat eg i es in Read i ng . . ....... ... 32

2 Languag e Cues and Read i ng strateg i es . 35

3 Pupi l s' C l o z e Test S c ores and Teachers' Rat i ng . . . . ....... .... ...... 53

4 Teachers' Assessment o f the Passag e . . 58

5 Rat ing Sca l e f or Retel l ing Scores . . . . 63

6 Mean Sc ores, Standard Deviat i ons and t-va l ues o f Miscues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

7 Summary o f Quant i tat ive Ana l ysis .. . . . 77

8 Re t e l l i ng Sco�es . . . . ................. 94

9 Mean Sc ores for Graphi c and Grammat i cal U t i l i zat i on, and Ret e l l i ng According to Age C l assi f i cat i on .. ..... ......... 98

10 Yap (NTP)- Ana l ysis o f Mi scue Tota l s . III

11 Yap's st rengths . . . . . . . . . ........ ..... 111

12 Khoo (N P)- Ana l ysis o f Mi scue Tota l s . 124

13 Khoo's streng ths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14 Types o f Miscues Made by the NTP Pupi l s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15 Typ es o f Miscues Made by the NP

124

176

Pupi l s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

16

17

18

19

20

Miscues P er Hundred Words (MPHW) and Perc entag e o f R i ght Words (RW) . . . .. . .

Graphi c S i mi l ari t y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Phon i c Si mi l ar i t y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Grammat i ca l Functi ons of Mi scues . . . . .

Meaning Change

vi i

178

178

179

179

180

Figure

1

2

LIST OF FIGURES

Miscue Tota l s of the Nationa l -Type Primary School (NTP) pupi l s and the Nationa l Prima ry School (NP) pupi l s

Rete l l ing Scores o f the Nationa l -Type Primary Schoo l ( NTP) pupi l s and the Nationa l Primary (NP) pupi l s . ... . .... .

3 Re l ationship between RW and Retel l ing

Page

7 3

92

Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

viii

An abstract of the thesis presented to the Senate of Universiti Pertanian Malaysia as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

MISCUE ANALYSIS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO GROUPS OF

PUPILS IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL

by

LEE POH LE

June 1995

Chairman Sali Zaliha Mustapha, Ph. D.

Faculty Educational Studies

This study made use of Miscue Analysis as a

psycholinguistic approach to investigate the reading

strategies of a group of English as a Second Language

pupils from the National-Type Primary Schools and

National Primary Schools who are currently in Sekolah

Menengah Bandar Baru Seri Petaling in Kuala Lumpur. The

Reading Miscue Inventory by Yetta Goodman and Burke

(1972) was modified for data collection in this study.

The main question addressed here is whether the

National-Type Primary and the National Primary pupils

make the same miscues in oral reading and if they do,

ix

to what extent do these miscues commensurate with their

comprehension of the text as revealed in their

retelling scores.

The findings show that both the National-Type

Primary ( UTP ) and the National Primary ( NP ) pupils

primarily made miscues in this order; substitutions,

omissions and insertions. The NTP pupils made more

miscues than the NP pupils. Both groups of pupils

relied heavily on graphophonemic cues when they fail to

break a code with the syntactic and semantic cues.

Their omissions of inflected plural and past tense

endings showed that they were conscious of word-economy

in processing text. However the NTP pupils were less

efficient than the NP pupils in the use of reading

strategies and were therefore weaker readers resulting

in poorer comprehension. Age had a negative effect on

the NTP pupils.

Miscue Analysis could be further modified for use

in schools as a research tool.

x

Abs t rak t es i s yang d ikemukakan kepada S enat Uni vers i t i Pertanian Mal aysia s ebagai memenuhi s ebahagi an daripada

syarat keperl uan i jazah Mas ter Sains

ANALISIS KESILAPAN KIU: KAJIAN PERBANDINGAN ANTARA DUA KUMPULAN MURID DI SEBUAH SEKOLAH MENENGAH

ol eh

LEE POH LE

June 1 9 95

Pengerusi Sa l i Zal i ha Mus tapha , Ph . D .

Fakul t i P engaji an Pendidikan

Ka j i an ini menggunakan Ana l i s i s Kesi l apan Ki u

s ebagai pendekatan psiko l ingui s t i k untuk menye l i dik

s t rategi -strat egi pembacaan s ekumpu l an pembaca Bahasa

I nggeris s ebagai Bahasa Kedua . Mereka t e rd i ri dari pada

murid -murid Sek o l ah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan ( SRJK ) dan

Sekol ah Rendah Kebangs aan (SRK) yang rnenuntut di

Seko l ah Menengah Bandar Baru Seri Pet a l ing, Kua l a

Lumpur . "Readi ng M i s cue I nvent ory" ( 1 97 2 ) o l eh Yet ta

Goodman dan Burke di ubahsuaikan untuk kegi atan

pengumpulan dat a kaji an ini .

xi

Persoa l an penye l i dikan ini berarah kepada

perbandi ngan kes i l apan kiu di antara kedua-dua kumpul an

murid

dengan

da l am

ka j i an ini , dan j uga pe rbandingan kes i l apan

tahap k e f ahaman t eks yang mer eka

sesi penc e r i t aan s emu l a t eks yang dibaca .

k i u

baca

Keputusan ana l i s i s menun jukkan bahawa k edua -dua

kumpul an mur i d ka j i an i ni me l akukan k es i l apan k i u

s emasa membaca . P enggantian perkataan yang t i dak

diketahui , ket i ngga l an perkat aan serta peny i s i pan

perkat aan atau ayat yang dibaca dengan perkataan

s end i r i merupakan beberapa kes i l apan k i u yang

di l akukan o l eh kedua -dua kumpul an muri d .

Muri d-murid SRJK me l akukan l ebih kes i l apan k i u

berbanding dengan muri d-murid SRK . Kedua-dua kumpu l an

muri d ka j i an ini amat berg antung kepada i s yarat

g r a f o f onemik apabi l a mereka gaga l meneka sesuatu

perkat aan denqan rnenggunakan is yarat sintaktik ataupun

i s ya rat s emant i k . Ket i nggal an imbuhan akhi r yang

di l akukan o l eh mer eka menun j ukkan bahawa mereka cuba

mengurangkan penggunaan perkat aan s emasa memproses

t eks . Wa l au bagaimanapun muri d-murid SRJK kurang mahi r

dari s egi penggunaan s t rategi pembacaan berbandi ng

dengan muri d -mur i d SRK . Ol eh i t u , kumpul an mur id ini

xi i

lebi h lemah da l am kefaharnan . Us i a seseo r ang di dapa t i

memberi kes an neg a t i f bagi rnuri d-rnuri d SRJK.

Anali s i s kes i lapan ki u ho l eh di ubahs ua i kan l ag i

untuk di gunakan sebagai ala t penye l i d i kan d i seko l ah.

x i i i

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Context of the Res earch Problem

Reading is a vita l s ki l l that ho l ds the k ey t o the

who l e

litt l e

wor l d o f t houghts

att ention has

and

been

imaginations . H owever ,

pa id to deve l o p t his

import ant ski l l among chi l d r en in schoo ls . I t is a

k nown fa l l acy that chi l d r en a f ter be i ng taught t h e

r udiments a n d mechanics o f r e ading wil l d eve l o p the

s ki l l of reading ( Southgat e , Ar n o l d and Johnson , 1981) .

As Englis h is t aught as a S econd Language in sch o o ls in

Ma l aysia , the ability to r ead i n Eng lis h is made even

mor e dif ficu l t . The l ack of abi lity to r ead in Eng lish

wi l l be a drawback for l earners who w i l l pursue the i r

education in ins titutions o f higher l ear ning as most

r e fer ence materia ls are s ti l l in Eng lish . The r e f or e ,

the teaching of r eading in Eng lis h should not be treated light l y . A more i n-d epth k nowl edge o f the

r eading pr ocess wou l d be r equ ir ed in t h is cas e .

Howeve r , there are con f licting v i e ws about the

r eading pr ocess . Rosenbl att (19 78) and Zame l (19 9 2)

1

2

c l a im that peo p l e generate and organ ize the i r memor i es

r e l ated t o a t op i c , a l l ow t he i r t h i nk i ng t o be gu i d ed

externa l ly , ass i mi l ate new id eas, accommodate o ld ones

and t hen r e- or ganize t h em in r ead i ng . Ther e f or e, ther e

i s a cont i nuous i nteract i on between the r eader and the

wr i ter . I t is this i nt er act i on wh i ch r es u l ts in an

i nt e r pr etat i on of the wr i t er's mess age .

On the other hand , there a r e a ls o res earche rs and

theor i s ts , l i k e Shannon and Ros e ( c i ted i n Zame l,

199 2) who have s uggested that the r ead i ng process has

been ove r l y s imp l i f i ed by text wr i t ers . They f e e l that

r ead i ng is not a r eceptive and s tatic pr ocess, but

r ather, o ne that i s act i ve and part i c i patory, wh i ch

i nvo l ves dynami c contr i but i ons o f the r eader .

Bar t h o l omae (1986) ho lds a s i mi l ar v i ew that reading

has been over l y simp l i f i ed, c i t i ng ev i dence f r om

the language used i n r ead i ng i ns t r uct i ons and tes t

questions which call f o r pr edetermi ned answers. Th is

mod e l o f r ead i ng has r ed uced the purpose o f r ead i ng t o

mer e l y answer i ng ques t i ons t h a t f o l l ow a t ext ( Barnet t,

1989) . A r eader wou ld, ther e f or e, f e e l that he has

understood a text we l l i f he can answer a l l the

ques t i ons that f o l l ow it ( Be l ano f f, 1987).

t hese viewpoint s , we wou l d t hen be f aced

Seen f r om

wit h these

ques t i ons : Wha t, then, is the r ead i ng process; and, how

can we go about to learn mor e about this process ?

3

Ear l i e r attempts to ana l ys e t h i s r ead i ng process

have not been abl e to t r ac e the psych o l og i cal aspect i n

read i ng. Huey ( 19 0 8 ) f a i l s t o ana l yse what actua l l y

goes on i n the mind o f the r ead er when he i nteracts

wi th the t ext . Th i s v i ew i s suppor ted by S outhgate et

a l . ( 19 81 ) who c l aim that si l en t r e ading enhances the

pr o b l em of t h i s i nves t igat i on .

Goodman ( 19 67 , 19 6 9 , and 19 81 ) , a psycho l i ngu i s t ,

f i nds that mi scue ana l ys i s can be us ed to exp l a i n the

r ead i ng pr ocess . This v i ew is suppo r t ed by Southgate

e t ale ( 19 8 1 ) . Accord i ng t o them, mi scue ana l ys i s

examines t h e e r r or s mad e by r eaders i n o r a l r ead i ng

and attempts to exp l a i n what the r eaders d o thr ough

these miscues . Thus , r esearch us i ng miscue anal ysis ,

will v i ew r ead i ng f r om the ps ych o l i ng u i s t i c po i nt o f

view ( Goodman , 19 6 7 ) .

According t o Goodman ( 1976 ) and Rume1har t ( 1977 ) ,

three major cues a r e used by r ead ers to i nteract

with the text in r eading: semant i c, syntact i c and

graphophonemic. These thr e e cues w i l l g i ve i ns i ght

int o the pr ocess of c ompr ehend i ng text as they wil l

r evea l :

(l) what i nitiat es the r ead i ng ;

(2) how r eaders process i n f o rmat i on; and

( 3 ) how r e aders or ganize in f or mation .

App l i ed l i ngu i s t i cs has us ed oral read i ng t o

analyse t h is comp l ex pr oces s . K enneth Goodman and Yett a

Goodman ( 19 81 ) a r e o f the op i n i on that e r r or s i n

r ead ing are not the r e s u l t o f f a i l u r e t o compr ehend ,

but r ather,

psych o l ingu is t ic

turns r e s u l ting

the evid ence o f the e f f ects o f

processes t hat have taken

in miscues . The nature

unexpect ed

o f these

miscues r eveal s the underly ing cogn it ive schema that

guid es a person ' s comprehension of the text .

Accur acy o f v isual and aud itory s t r ateg i es is then

o f prime i mpor tance. To arr i ve at the meaning, the

r eader mus t go thr ough a language pr ocess t hat d epends

l arge l y o n s o und equiva l ence for words .

Goodman ( 1 9 6 7 ) , h owever, v iews that r ead ing beg ins

w i t h a hypot hes i s o r pr edic tion about the mean i ng o f

what is to be read . Readers must mak e i n it ial use of

the i r prior k nowl edge and l anguage competence . The

r eader

every

r eade r

use f u l

does not need to l ook at or pr onounce

l etter o r word to get to the meaning. The

s a�p l e s and s e l ects f r om the t ext only the mos t i n f ormation w i t h the intent o f con firming

expectat ions .

5

Rume l hart ( 19 7 7 ) , on the other hand , suggests that

t h e r ead i ng pr ocess may b e initiat ed eith er by the

pr i n t or by the r eader ' s expectations . The reader mak e s

u s e of whatever strat egies need ed at t h a t time . This

v i ew is further suppor t ed by Zame l ( 19 9 2 ) who sees

r eading as an act ive engagement thr ough which meaning

i s pr oduced. Pehr son and Rob i nson ( 19 8 5:5 ) sum up that

"read i ng begins and ends wit h mean i ng " . The outcome

of r ead ing then , wi l l a l so d e pend on the r ead er ' s

k nowl edge and experience of the wor l d t o create an

af f e c t ive pr o x i mi ty w i t h the wr i ter . However , r ead i mg

s e l ections i n scho o l t extbooks d o not usua l ly cater f o r

i nd i vidual pup i l ' s need o r even i nd i v id u a l scho o l need .

Ther ef or e , the way r e ading is taught i n schoo l s ,

suggests to pup i ls that r ead i ng i s a r eceptive and

s tatic pr ocess . It i s an act o f finding a particu l ar

i d ea i n the text . Bartho l omae ( 19 8 6 ) points out that

r ead i ng inst r uctions support this approach to r eading. Pup i ls need not have t o und e r s tand the text we l l t o be

abl e t o answer test questions given at the end

o f the

t hr ough

ques t i ons

As such

process

f o l l owing

r ead i ng text . They on l y need to

the text progr ess ive l y , f o l l owing

as they go to answer them ( Barnett ,

pup i l s see t h e pur pose of r eading

l ook

the

19 8 9 ) .

as a

r equ i r ed pr i or to answer i ng ques t i ons

a t ext ( Be l anoff , 1987 ) . Pupi l s have c ome t o

6

be l i eve that 'r ead i ng is the att empt t o memor ize t e x t

wh i c h s omeone e lse s e l ects s o t h a t o n e can r epr oduce

factua l

1 9 8 9 : 9 1 ) .

i n f ormat i on when ques t i oned'

I n t his context , mean i ng i n

predetermi ned and the r ead er has to f i nd

This has caused a gener al decl i ne i n the

r ead we l l among pup i ls today .

a

( Shannon ,

text is

t h is o u t .

a b i l i ty t o

I n an ESL s i tuat i on , t h i s pr o b l em i s further

c ompounded. Emphas is on determ i n i ng and ident i fyi ng

the meaning i n a text wi l l g i ve r is e t o i ne f f ect i ve

r e ad i ng strat egy l i k e word f or word r e ad i ng . H i rsch

( 1 9 8 7 ) agr e es t ha t t h i s f or m of r ead i ng d e n i es t h e

r eade r h is own transact i ons with a t e x t and t h e

understanding t h a t r eading invol ves s uch t ransact i ons

( Rosenb l at t , 197 8 ; Fre i r e , 19 83 ; Bartho l omae and

Petrosky, 1 9 8 7 ) .

Reading theory and r es earch i n s ec o nd

language ( Ca r e l l ,

19 8 9 ; M i k u l ecky ,

Dev i ne and Eskey, 19 8 8 ; Bar net t ,

1 9 9 0; Grabe , 19 9 1 ) also s t r ess t h e

impor t ance o f r ec ogn i z i ng that r eaders br i ng mean i ng

t o t he text whil e i nt er ac t i ng w i t h i t . H owever ,

r ead i ng s e l ect i ons f o r c l assr oom us e d o not g i ve enough

room for teachers to interact w i t h them i n a mean i ngfu l

7

way. The teacher's role is reduced to only monitoring

and managing students (Shannon, 1989). But, if reading

is affected by purpose and goal, it should involve

recursiveness which then makes the text malleable and

open to interpretations.

On the other hand, if reading ends with meaning,

that is, a developed meaning arising from readers'

comprehension of the text, it is then imperative that a

device be used to gauge this comprehension. Guszak

(1972) states that retelling of the material by the

readers will demonstrate their understanding of it.

Gershon (1985), however, cautions that retelling is a

weak instrument to assess comprehension as this

requires the reader to recall in order to retell. Thus,

probing questions and prompts need to be used to help

readers retell when necessary during the retelling

session to evaluate their comprehension of the text

read.

statement of the Problem

The reading process is difficult to understand.

Yet reading plays an important role in the ESL

8

cu�� i cu l um . The�e f o�e , the �ead i ng p�ocess s hould be

further i nves t i gated s o that the t each i ng of r ead i ng

s t�ateg i es can be i mpr oved.

I.ee Su K i m ( 1 9 83) and Spyk erman ( 19 8 8 ) car r i ed out

r es earches on the read i ng pr ocess among Ma l a ys i a n

pup i ls . They f ound that miscues made i n oral r ead i ng

can be ana l ys ed quan t i ta t i ve ly and qua l i ta t i ve l y t o

i nves t i gate t h e r ead i ng pr ocess ( Go odman and Bur k e ,

1972 and Spyke�man , 19 8 8 ) . I t i s the a i m o f t h i s

s t udy t o i nves t i gate t h e e f f ect o f miscues on t h e

c ompr ehens i on o f a t e x t among Form Two pup i ls i n a

s econdary schoo l .

The pur pose o f this s t ud y g i ves r is e t o two

pr imary ques t i ons :

( i ) Do r eaders who wer e

Nat i on a l -Type Pr i mary

f or mer l y f r om

Scho o ls ( NTP )

t h e

and

the Nat i onal Pr i mary Schools ( NP ) d i f f e r

i n us i ng miscues as s t r ateg i es i n or a l

r e ading ?

( i i) I f they d o , to what extent d o these

m iscues i n o r a l �ead i ng a f f ect �ete l l i ng

wh i ch wou ld be us ed as a compr ehens i on

measur e ?

9

I t i s hoped that the i mpl i cat i ons f r om the

r esults of t h e analys i s would help educators plan and

evaluate the i r r ead i ng programmes .

Objectives of the study

I t i s w i th i n the context o f these propos i t i ons

t hat t h i s study attempts to analyse the r ead i ng pr ocess

of two gr oups of ESL r eader s , that is , pup i ls fr om the

Nat i onal-Type Pr i mary Schools ( NTP ) and pup i ls f r om the

Nat i onal Pr i ma r y Schools ( NP ) . Both groups of pup ils

ar e i n Form Two and ar e f ollowi ng the Engl i sh

Language progr amme at the " i nter med i at e " level . Th is

i ntermed i acy i s d e termi ned by the Cur r i culum and

Developmen t Centre of the M i n istry o f Ed ucat i on

( Engl i sh I.anguage S yllabus for S econdary Schools ,

1989).

The NP pup ils h ave

educat i on whe r e Engl ish

completed s i x years of pr i mary

is i nt r od uced as a S econd

Language f r om year one . The NTP pupi ls have

completed s i x years of pr i mary educat i on whe r e Engl i sh

i s i nt r od uced onl y i n the t h i rd year o f the i r pr i mary

educat i on . These NTP pup ils d o a year of i ntens i ve

10

c ou r s e to e qu ip them with su ffic ie nt s k il l s in the

E ng l ish L a nguage to mee t the r e qu ir eme nt of the

F or m One E ng l ish La nguag e p r og r amme . Both g r oups of

pup il s ar e taugh t E ng l is h as a S e c ond L a ngua g e .

S p e c ifica l l y, th is s tud y s e eks a ns we rs to the

fol l owing ques tions :

( 1 ) Is the r e a s ig nifica nt d iffe r e nc e in

the tota l number of m is cues us ed be twe e n

the NTP pup il s a nd the NP pup il s ?

( 2 ) Is of

the r e a

mis cues

ma rked d iffe re nc e in the typ e

(su bstitution, omis s ion, ins e r tion, r e p e tition, paus e a nd r e v e r s a l ) us ed by the NTP pup il s a nd the NP pup il s in

r ead ing ?

(3) Is the r e a significant difference in c omp r eh e ns ion be twe e n the two gr oups bas ed

on r e te l l ing ?

(4) Is the r e a r e l a tionsh ip be twe e n the ir mis cue s c or e s a nd r e te l l ing s c or es ?

(5) Does a d iffe r e nc e in age a ffe c t the s tr a te g ies us ed in r e a d ing ?

11

Significance of the study

Read i ng i s an i mpor tant sk i l l i n any l anguage

t each i ng and l ear n i ng context . As a t eacher , one ought

to have a mor e i n-depth understand i ng of the r ead i ng

pr ocess . Th i s understand i ng wi l l mak e i t poss i b l e f o r

t h e t eacher t o p l ace t h e pup i l s a t t h e correct l evel i n

the r ead i ng programme, supply appr opr i at e r ead i ng

mater i a l , and , at the same t ime r ecommend r ecreat i onal

r ead i ng f or them ( Burns and Roe , 1989) . Thus , we

need t o k now t h e s t r at eg i es the r ead ers use i n

c ompr e hend i ng text .

Th i s und e r s tand i ng o f the r ead i ng pr ocess wi l l

a l s o h e l p l earners bu i ld up conf id ence i n r ead i ng .

Ther e f or e , a r es earch i nt o the r ead i ng pr ocess i s

i mportant s o that one can understand what the average

l earners at the i nt ermed i at e level do wh i l e reading.

An unpub l i s hed ear l i er s t udy was d one by the

r es earcher o n three hundr ed and s i x ty- f our pup ils to

ver i fy the ach i evement of the NTP pup i l s and the NP

pup i l s bas ed on t he i r Engl i sh Language m i d -year

e xaminat i on r es u l ts . I t was f o und tha t mor e

( 2 6% N P a s opposed t o 4 \ NTP ) wer e p l aced a t

N P pup i l s

t h e t o p