Instructor attention to oral reading errors: a functional analysis

Abstract

The effect of attention to oral reading errors has received little specific examination by researchers in applied behaviour analysis. Some data suggest attending to such errors can have inappropriate effects on learning. A conceptual framework was developed to examine the effects of error attention on the acquisition of proficient reading responses. Analyses of reading behaviour employed concepts and data from 'structural' accounts of reading. These concepts provided details of the components of response systems. Acquisition of proficient reading was seen to involve trends towards accurate integrated responding which becomes self controlled. Error attention was conceptualised as having motivational and informational properties which could directly affect acquisition trends. The first experiment (Chapter Three) demonstrated that under appropriate conditions oral reading behaviour was facilitated by error attention. Eleven year old readers in a Learning Disabilities classroom were measured in their usual reading setting. Two readers received extra tutoring with error attention procedures. A further two readers acted as a contrast for the effects of increased opportunities to respond. These readers received extra practice tutoring with minimum levels of praise. A third subject received no extra tutoring during the course of the experiment. Results indicated that both practice and error attention produced substantial increases in accuracy and correct rates. Accuracy levels were higher for error attention subjects suggesting error attention can have important learning outcomes. Additionally, predictions concerning the error attention dimensions of modeling and prompting were tested. Prompts were found to be more effective with the more proficient reader while models were more effective with the less proficient reader. The second experiment (Chapter Four) examined specific predictions about timing of error attention. Six, 6 year old normal readers received daily sessions of either delayed or immediate attention to errors. Every second day the subjects also read a text on which they were not tutored. Results showed that delayed attention increased the percent of errors self corrected for five subjects in both the tutored and non tutored texts. Increases in self corrections were consistently associated with increased accuracy. The data supported both the predictions and the proposed model of self correction behaviour as having a tutorial or self instruction function. Both experiments were discussed in terms of the functions of error attention in facilitating acquisition of proficient reading. Methodological issues in the behaviour analysis of oral reading were also discussed and implications from the studies for instruction in learning to read are drawn. The usefulness of concepts from 'structural' accounts of reading for a predictive 'functional' account of error attention is examined in a concluding section.