The performance of average readers on a battery of psycholinguistic tests
Date
1991
Authors
Eser, Belinda
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Abstract
This study of the performance of a sample of average readers on a
bax t any of psycholinguistic tests, was conducted in order to
provide norms fat' these tests. The sample was drawn from two
private schools in Johannesburg and was selected on the basis of
age~appropriate performance on the Schonell Graded Word Reading
Test. Scores on the Psycholinguistic Tests were expected to
conform to predictions of an Information Processing Model which
identifies two reading strategies: a direct strategy for reading,
which depends on the recognition of the visual appearance of the
whole word; and a second indirect or phonological strategy, which
is dependent on the use of grapheme-phoneme correspondence. This
functional model of adult language processing has been applied in
the present study to the development of reading abi Ii ties in
children. Research has shown that children use dual routes in
reading as well, and that I while younger readers are more dependent
on the indirect or phonological route, more proficient older
readers rely predominantly on the lexical or direct route. It was
expected therefore that different reading strategies would be used
for different word types at different ages. As the means for the
tests supplied by this study conform to p~edictions of the Dual
Processing Model and support the pr oposition of developmental
changes in reading strategies, these means may be used as an
indication of normal processing strategies in children, thereby
permitting the identification of deviant reading strategies in
children of different ages.
Description
A research report submitted to the faculty of education of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Educational Psychology.
Johannesburg 1991
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Citation
Eser, Belinda (1991) The performance of average readers on a battery of psycholinguistic tests, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,<http://hdl.handle.net/10539/22778>