Abstract
Miscue scores are said to reflect an interaction between the language of a reader and the language of an author. Although reader differences in miscue patterns have been studied extensively, less is known about the influence of author language, or text characteristics, on oral reading behavior. The selection of subjects and the ANOVA design of the present study made it possible to assess the effects of accuracy level and of selected text characteristics on miscue scores. Fifty-two second-graders were selected from among 161 who read aloud two stories which differed in familiarity of vocabulary and in redundancy. The children represented specified accuracy levels of oral reading on the two stories. Findings were that contextual appropriateness and meaning loss scores were associated most strongly with accuracy level differences. Types of errors, percent of corrections, and comprehension were associated most strongly with differences in text characteristics. When interpreting miscue data, the possible influence of these two sources of variance should be kept in mind.