MITE 6025

Methods of Research & Enquiry

Andrew, Stella, Vickie, Cissy

Research Question

To find out the relationship between the missing-letter effect and the reading ability

Literature Review Suggested article

Jean Saint-Aubin, Raymond M Klein (2008). The Influence of Reading Skills on the Missing-Letter Effect Among Elementary School Students. Reading Research Quarterly. 43(2), p. 132 (14 pages)

Hypotheses

1. What is the problem for the study?

3. What procedures did the experimenter use for the study?

5. What were the major conclusions for the study?

7. How would you classify the study, according to the six types of research studies we looked at in this lesson?

Method

Subjects

Instruments

Design and procedure

Subjects

A total of 180 children from grade 1 to grade 5 in two schools took part in the experiment.

Collect data Children were asked to read a set of designed text

Read the text with normal speed silently

Participants were asked to circle all detected instances of the target letter

Participants were informed that they were not allowed to go back to circle it if they missed it

Collect data

Participants were told that each text was followed by a comprehension question with three answer choices

Afterwards, the children will take Wide Range Achievement Test, which include a subtest for reading

Collect data

Children were divided into good and poor readers according to their score in reading test

Variations in the size of the missing-letter effect as a function of grade level and reading ability are then analyzed

Conclusions for the study

size of the missing-letter effect was found to be related to reading ability among first to fourth graders and to some extent among fifth graders

Methodology used

Correlational theory

Two groups formed

Good readers (high scores) vs. poor readers (low scores)

Correlational theory

Missing letter effect (MLE) has been measured in relation to reading ability

References Bell, J. (1993). Doing your research project :

a guide for first-time researchers in education and social science. Buckingham, Open University Press.

Cohen, L., L. Manion, et al. (2000). Research methods in education. London ; New York, Routledge/Falmer.

Gay, L. R. (1981). Educational research : competencies for analysis & application. Columbus, Merrill.