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Article published In:
Written Language & Literacy
Vol. 20:2 (2017) ► pp.147–169

Instability of word reading errors of typical and poor readers

| Radboud University Nijmegen
| Radboud University Nijmegen

We examined the instability of reading errors, that is whether a child reads the same word sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly, and whether typical readers differ in their instability from poor readers. With an interval of a few days, Dutch CVC words were read twice by typically developing first and second graders and reading-level matched poor readers. Error instability was considerable and second graders produced more unstable errors than first graders. Poor readers did not differ from typical readers, suggesting a developmental lag for poor readers. Of the word characteristics studied, frequency was the strongest predictor: the higher word frequency, the higher error instability. Our study indicates that error instability can be considered as an indicator of the transition from incompetence to reading competence.

Keywords: word decoding, reading development, reading disorders, orthography, reading errors, error instability
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Procedure and instruments
      • 2.2.1Reading tests
        • Lexical decision test (LDT)
        • Word decoding test (WDT)
        • Nonword reading test
      • 2.2.2Computer reading task
        • Stimuli for the computer reading task
        • Sampling from the lemma set
      • 2.2.3Procedure
        • General procedure
        • Administration of the computer reading task
    • 2.3Data analyses
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Stability of reading scores
      • 3.1.1Test score stability
      • 3.1.2Stability of item difficulty
    • 3.2Instability of reading errors
      • 3.2.1Subject analyses
      • 3.2.2Item analyses
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 9 February 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00002.ste
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