Word Recognition: An Investigation of Strategies



Word Recognition: An Investigation of Strategies

Carol H. Holt

Appalachian State University

Word Recognition: An Investigation of Strategies 1

Learning to read involves automatic word recognition, being able to identify words effortlessly at first sight. Reading words with automaticity allows the reader to easily glide through the words on the page devoting all his or her attention to comprehending the printed material. When reading words is effortless or automatic, the focus can be on comprehension. Becoming fully literate is absolutely dependent on fast, accurate recognition of words in texts, and fast, accurate production of words in writing so that readers and writers can focus their attention on making meaning (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton & Johnston, 2004).

In contrast, when words are not recognized automatically, more attention is needed to decode or figure out unknown words. This usually results in reading that is choppy or lacks fluency. But more than not reading smoothly, a lack of comprehension of what is read can occur when words are not recognized automatically. This is due to the fact that so much mental energy has been spent on trying to decode an unknown word, and comprehension is lost. According to Morris (2005), a deficit in decoding or word recognition skill is at the heart of most serious reading problems.

This information brings to the forefront the focus of my study. What will be the effect of implementing a balanced reading intervention program on word recognition with two second graders?

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Theoretical Perspective

Word recognition includes a number of instructional strategies which are intended to assist in the development of automatic word recognition and decoding skills.

Ehri (1994) found that beginning readers identify words in four ways:

• Sight – retrieve information from memory based on prior experiences with that word

• Decoding – sounding out letters and blending the sounds together to pronounce a word

• Analogizing – using knowledge of a similar familiar word to identify an unknown word. For example, to read the unfamiliar word mellow, you think about how it is similar to the word yellow.

• Contextual guessing – using meaning-based cues in the text (such as words in the sentence, syntax, pictures)

The best way to develop fast and accurate perception of word features is to engage in meaningful reading and writing, and to have multiple opportunities to examine those same words out of context (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, Johnston, 2004).

Prior to instruction, reading assessments must be conducted and reviewed in order to gauge where instruction should begin. It is important to teach components of reading from simplest to more complex, giving verbal praise for tasks performed well. The role

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of the teacher in a behaviorist model is to teach content and model skills and then to provide practice and reinforcement for mastering those skills (Mathes, Denton, Fletcher, Anthony, Francis, Schatschneider, 2005).

It is also important to model reading strategies, provide guided practice and promote independent practice of specific strategies. It is the role of the teacher to make his or her own knowledge explicit and to model strategies and then to coach and scaffold the learners as they apply these concepts and strategies in authentic activity (Mathes, Denton, Fletcher, Anthony, Francis, Schatschneider, 2005).

Becoming an independent reader is contingent upon the correct recognition of words in texts, so that readers can place all of their attention on the meaning of the texts. But what specific reading skills or strategies should be taught for word recognition?

Phonics instruction can help develop accurate recognition of written words. The relationship between the phonological aspects of language (the sounds) and the graphic signs (the letters and combinations of letters) is an important source of information for readers (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). By acquiring some knowledge of spelling to sound mappings, the child will gain the prerequisites to fluent reading (Stanovich, 1986).

The reading process not only includes phonics, but also includes phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and motivation to read. When a student has good decoding ability, he or she can decode or sound out unknown words they encounter while reading. For some students, learning to decode well may take time. To help learners move from slow, deliberate decoding to faster decoding that involves

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less overt attention to each grapheme-phoneme relation, the key is practice (Ehri & McCormick, 1998).

Building sight vocabulary is essential to reading. The more sight vocabulary or high frequency words a student knows the better, because the student can recognize these words immediately. According to Fountas and Pinnell (1996), high frequency words are useful to beginning readers because (1) they appear over and over, knowing them facilitates fluent reading and allows the reader to pay attention to new words. (2) They may be the springboard to solving unfamiliar words (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). According to White (2005), teaching students to decode unknown words by analogy, which is using a known word to decode an unknown word, proved to be a successful word recognition strategy.

In order to improve word recognition, struggling readers need practice reading books on their instructional level. Children who struggle with beginning reading need to be guided skillfully through a graded series of reading books and a graded word study curriculum (Morris, 2005). A crucial part of a balanced reading intervention program includes guided reading and word study.

Review of Literature

As a Title 1 teacher, the study conducted by Leppanen (2004) concerning the development of reading skills caught my attention, especially when I read that some

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children follow a downward spiral in reading skills. I have seen students that fall into both categories: (1) students with less reading ability encounter problems reading and therefore read less and continue to fall behind in reading, and (2) students with more

reading ability tend to grow in reading and read more on their own.

This study by Leppanen (2004) investigated developmental paths in reading acquisition during the kindergarten and first grade year. The results showed that in these Finnish schools, the children’s reading development followed a cumulative path. In other words, children with initially more advanced skills in reading became better readers when compared to lower performing classmates. Yet, in first grade, reading development seemed to follow a compensatory path, because poor readers developed at a faster pace than good readers did.

The level of reading skills at the beginning of kindergarten was found to be associated with phonological awareness, whereas the growth across kindergarten and first grade was predicted by letter knowledge, number sense, and listening comprehension skills. The study ended with results suggesting that systematic reading instruction may be more beneficial for children with less developed skills, and that more advanced readers gain less from reading instruction in first grade. My thoughts are that the teacher needed to differentiate instruction so that the higher level readers were challenged.

Allen (1998) stated that word identification instruction needs to be balanced. In his journal article, An Integrated Strategies Approach: Making Word Identification Instruction Work for Beginning Readers, Allen reveals the Integrated Strategies Word

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Approach on word identification instruction for beginning readers. Components of the program include, rhyme, rime, key words, high frequency words and decoding by analogy.

In the study, The Effects of theoretically different instruction and student characteristics on the skills of struggling readers (Mathes, Denton, Fletcher, Anthony, Francis & Schatschneider, 2005), the efficacy of combining enhanced classroom instruction and concentrated supplemental intervention for struggling readers in first grade was investigated. Two supplemental reading interventions were used in this study, Proactive Reading resulting from the Direct Instruction model, and Responsive Reading which is in alignment with cognitive theory. Both interventions give emphasis to word recognition strategies and both were effective interventions for at-risk first grade readers.

White (2005) studied the effects of systematic and strategic analogy-based phonics to teach students to decode unknown words. According to White (2005), analogy-based phonics is defined as systematic when teachers provide students with sufficient opportunities to transfer decoding skills to novel words containing spelling patterns that have been taught. Strategic was defined as when, through teacher modeling, children learn that when they are reading and come to a word they do not know, they can try to “think of a word they do know” (i.e., a word with the same spelling pattern).

The study conducted by Juel and Minden-Cupp, Learning to Read Words: Linguistic Units and Instructional Strategies, focused on which and how many word recognition strategies should be used. Word recognition instruction in four first grade classrooms

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was analyzed. The results of this study showed that phonic and phonemic awareness instruction benefited the low readers in one classroom the most. Poor readers in this classroom were most successful in sounding out and blending phonemes, because

they had had the most instruction as well as the most practice using this strategy. The

students received phonics instruction in the form of onsets and rimes, and blending of phonemes within the rimes. These results showed that extensive modeling of sounding out individual phonemes (/b/,/r/,/a/,/n/,/d/) as well as chunking the onset and rime (/br/,/and/), followed by ample practice, would be a helpful word recognition strategy for low readers.

Methods

Subjects

The subjects for this study were two second graders, Anna and Bella (names are pseudonyms), students who are enrolled in an elementary school in a rural setting in the foothills of western North Carolina. Both are members of families with a low socioeconomic status. Both students have multiple siblings ranging from three to five children in each family. Bella is Caucasian and Anna is Hispanic and her family is from Mexico.

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Anna has been served in the English as a Second Language program since kindergarten. She scored high on the English proficiency exam administered in kindergarten and was not served at the beginning of the year. Later, her classroom

teacher observed many weaknesses in her academic development so she was pulled into active English as a Second Language services. Anna appears to be a bright student, but has shown patterns of laziness in the past. However, this school year she seems very motivated and attentive to her education.

Anna has good oral English, but she may occasionally search for an English word in social conversation. Her reading and writing skills need more development as she is still not on grade level. Anna receives limited support at home because neither parent speaks fluent English. Anna’s mother can be very hard on her at times saying things like she is unable to learn or is not very bright. According to our English as a Second Language teacher, this treatment can be a cultural norm among some Latino families from Mexico.

Bella appears to often times be unmotivated to learn in school and, like Anna, has shown patterns of laziness in the past. Bella is currently being assessed for our Exceptional Children’s Program. She has an older sibling, currently in the fourth grade, which has been served in the Exceptional Children’s Program since second grade. Both students are considered below grade level in reading and math. Bella’s younger sibling is clearly behind his peers in kindergarten, even though he was enrolled in the Prekindergarten Program last year.

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Procedures

Anna and Bella are members of a small reading group of four students who have been identified through standardized tests, teacher observation, and Developmental Reading Assessment scores as below grade level in reading. The group met forty minutes on every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for reading remediation.

Each lesson included guided reading utilizing predictable books that were on the student’s instructional level. During guided reading, students read orally each day the group met. Oral reading was in the form of choral reading (whole group reading together), echo reading (teacher read, then students read), round robin (taking turns), partner (read with buddy), simultaneously reading (all students read at own pace), or rereading alone. Because Bella tended to want to lay her head on the table and not focus her attention on the text, two rules were created to help her stay alert during the lesson. The first rule was that good readers sit up, and the second rule was to follow the text by pointing under each word as it is read which is referred to as tracking.

Word identification strategies were demonstrated and practiced during guided reading as needed. Some strategies included focusing on analogy, meaning, picture cues and decoding. For example, when there was a tricky word I would write the word on the board and show students how to find familiar patterns or chunks within the word (as in that). Students were shown how to replace unknown words with a word that made sense. Reminding students to always look at the illustrations was another way to help them

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figure out an unknown word (forest – picture with many trees). Simply asking, “What’s that first sound?”, reminded students to sound it out or decode the unknown word.

Each lesson included word study by reviewing tricky vocabulary from the book we read. These words often included high frequency sight words such as they, want and what. Word sorts were included in word study, and involved sorting short vowel word families. Spell checks were also part of word study. Students were asked to spell a sample of word family words from the word sort. Occasionally, the students worked on making words, which concentrated on onset and rime.

Students kept individual data folders where they graphed the number of words they recognized and the words they read per minute during timed readings. Each reading remediation lesson ended with a fun and motivating word game activity. Word games consisted of Pitty Pat, Bang and Concentration.

Data

I used a variety of data for my research study. Several sources of information I collected were located in each student’s kindergarten through second grade literacy folder. The folders were kept by the classroom teacher and contain literacy documentation since the beginning of kindergarten. The documents included these phonemic awareness assessments that had been administered since each student first

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began elementary school:

• Making rhyming words

• Recognizing beginning sounds

• Identifying beginning consonant sounds and letters

• Recognizing ending sounds

• Recognizing rhyming words

The folders also had each student’s Developmental Reading Assessment level that included running records and retelling documentation.

When I started collecting my data, I decided to conduct an interview with each student to find out how many word recognition strategies they were able to identify that they used, who they read with at home, and how they felt about reading in general. Informal observations were made during the guided reading lesson. Observations were written, running records and tally marks were all recorded in a notebook to be analyzed afterward.

An important part of my data collection included the reading assessments that I administered with each student. These assessments included the Dolch word list, an informal reading inventory for word identification (flash/untimed word lists), a reading inventory that noted accuracy, number of miscues, reading rate and level. Students were timed while rereading familiar text for accuracy of word recognition and fluency. The

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students recorded their words per minute on a Read for Speed graph. Each assessment was administered once a month for three consecutive months. Students kept individual data folders with graphs showing how many words they identified and how many words they read per minute.

Data Analysis

I analyzed my research data by examining all the assessments I had taken over the three-month period, as well as assessments in each subject’s kindergarten through second grade literacy folder.

With the informal reading inventory, I carefully looked at reading accuracy, number of errors and self-corrections of the passages that were read. The number of rereadings, pauses and word attack skills were also studied.

On the word lists, the words read at first sight were checked, as well as the words read in the untimed portion indicating decoding skills of each subject.

The words per minute and number of errors made were examined on the timed rereading graphs for any signs of improvement.

The notebook containing observations of each lesson was closely reviewed for patterns of behavior, and the word strategies used by the subjects in this study.

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I carefully went through all the data that was gathered for this research in order to come to a conclusion about this study and to discover a solution for my research question.

Discussion

In analyzing the data collected from the student’s Kindergarten-Second Grade Literacy folders, I noticed that Anna and Bella had both struggled with phonemic awareness. I also became aware of the fact that Anna was consistently ahead of Bella by one reading level on the Developmental Reading Assessment from kindergarten through the end of first grade. At the beginning of this school year, when the Developmental Reading Assessment was administered, Bella had dropped back a level from the end of first grade. Falling back a reading level at the beginning of a new school year is not uncommon, especially with children who do not read much or at all over the summer break. It was a concern in this case, however, because Bella was already beginning second grade well below grade level. In contrast, Anna was able to move up to the next level on her Developmental Reading Assessment.

While conducting an interview with each student, I asked who they read with at home. Anna replied that she read with her older sister who is in the fifth grade. When asked if she read with mom or dad, she said she had read to them before, but they did not understand (English). Anna said that she liked reading books at school and at home, however, she added that she did not like reading with her sister because she would not

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tell her the words. Bella said that she read with her dad. When asked how she felt about reading, she said that she did not like it at all.

After gathering the data from the interviews on the students’ motivation in reading, I researched areas that could improve motivation. Samuels (1979) had students complete individual reading graphs charting words read per minute and found that the graphs were a motivating tool for students.

Because motivation was an issue with Bella, each student kept a data folder where they graphed their own results in word identification and words read per minute. Like Samuels, I also found that the students were excited about their gains in both areas. The graphs provided a visual reinforcement of growth, and both Anna and Bella were proud to show their results.

During the interviews I also asked each student, “What do you do when you come to a word you do not know?” I asked each student one at a time so that they would not copy each other’s answer. Both students quickly answered, “I sound it out.” When I asked, “Do you do anything else to figure out a word you do not know?,” Bella thought and thought and finally responded, “I tell someone I don’t know what it is.” Anna replied, “I look at the pictures.” I was pleased that Anna had a “back-up plan” for word identification, in case decoding was not successful. I was concerned, though, that neither had identified more ways to figure out an unknown word like looking for chunks (onset and rime), or similarities (analogy) among words they already knew.

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One of the things I noticed during informal observations of guided reading was how many times I had to redirect Bella to track or look at the words being read. Even though the rules were in place to sit up and track, and she was reminded of the rules, Bella would still want to lay her head on the table. Anna, on the other hand, would sit up straight in her chair, and she remembered to track. She seemed to be motivated and make an effort to do her best, while Bella seemed unmotivated and would not always follow directions during the lesson. Tally marks were made every time a student had to be reminded to track or sit up in the chair. During one lesson alone, Bella was reminded to sit up or track ten times. Anna did not have to be reminded at all. In contrast, I observed during the last part of the lesson when the students played a word game; Bella was much more energetic and engaged in the activity.

Running records were taken once a week while Anna and Bella read in the guided reading lesson. After analyzing each running record, I noticed that Anna reread sentences or parts of a sentence frequently. According to the running records, it was evident that Anna also self-corrected often. Even though she was unable to articulate to me in our interview that she decoded by looking for familiar chunks in an unknown word, she was able to decode by the onset and rime (/st/,/and/). Bella, on the other hand, consistently decoded by individual phonemes (/s/,/t/,/a/,/n/,/d/). She had more miscues than Anna, and rarely self-corrected. According to the running records data, Anna has shown evidence higher level literacy skills than Bella.

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An informal reading inventory was taken once in September, October and November. In analyzing the informal reading inventory data, I noticed that Anna was clearly able to recognize more words at first sight (flash) than Bella. She also had more decoding skill than Bella.

In September, Bella had a word recognition (flash) score of 40 at the PrePrimer level, with an untimed score of 55. Bella was able to identify exactly three more words by decoding. Anna, on the other hand, had a score of 85 on word recognition (flash) at the PrePrimer level, with 100 percent untimed. Anna was able to move ahead to the Primer list with a score of 40 (flash), and a score of 55 in the untimed portion of word recognition.

Three months later in November, each student had moved to the next list in word recognition with Anna at the Primer level and Bella at the first grade level. Bella was still ahead of Anna by one level on word recognition and still able to recognize more words at first sight and decode more words. Both students were making slow, steady progress with word identification.

In analyzing the words per minute data during the rereadings, I noticed that Anna and Bella both read more words per minute and made fewer errors with each rereading. When Anna was first timed in September, she read fifty words per minute. When Anna was timed in November on her third rereading of a different passage, she read 69 words per minute. When Bella was first timed in September, she read twenty-one words per

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minute. When Bella was timed in November on her third rereading of a different passage, she read fifty-nine words per minute. Being timed seemed game-like for the girls and, as a result, a motivating challenge to read more words with each subsequent timed reading.

Conclusion

This study addressed the effects of a balanced reading program on word recognition while investigating several word recognition strategies. There are many different strategies for word recognition. Some strategies are more appropriate for students depending upon their current stage of literacy development. For example, decoding would be appropriate for students who can distinguish letter/sound correspondence, so they are able to sound out letters and blend them together to pronounce the word. Another strategy for word identification, analogizing, is appropriate for students who distinguish the letters in a known word, and can use that knowledge to identify an unknown word. For example, if a student knows the word yellow, he or she may be able to figure out the unknown word mellow through analogy.

For this study, a combination of strategies was presented and modeled with both subjects during the reading lesson. After progressing at about the same rate in reading since kindergarten (same rate, one level apart), these two students currently show a larger gap between one another in reading progression.

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Although motivation was not the main focus in this study, it was considered an important component. The guided reading lessons were presented in a positive manner in a safe, nonthreatening, encouraging environment. Lessons always ended with a fun word game. Students were able to keep individual data folders to graph their own gains that were exciting and motivating. Unlike Bella, Anna was observed as being consistently motivated during the guided reading lesson. Although still a struggling reader with additional challenges such as learning English as a second language with non-English speaking parents, Anna has made more progress in her word recognition ability. Motivation and interest in reading may very well be one of the reasons Anna progressed at a faster rate in word recognition.

Students have to be ready developmentally to be able to learn and use certain word recognition strategies. Rather than a broad-brush, either/or instructional approach that is applied to all children in a classroom, word recognition instruction is likely to be most effective if there is an emphasis on different linguistic units at different levels of reading development (Juel, 2000). The strategy to word recognition from Juel’s research that I liked in particular was combining an onset and rime approach with sequential letter-sound decoding. This approach worked well with both of my subjects. This was important for Anna, who used onset and rime to figure out unknown words, but still needed reinforcement of decoding rimes. It was also essential for Bella, who decoded primarily by individual phonemes, but needed onset and rime modeled and reviewed daily. I believe that extensive instruction of sounding out individual phonemes

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(/f/,/l/,/a/,/t/) as well as chunking the onset and rime (/fl/,/at/), was beneficial to both subjects in this study, because they were able to use this strategy with some degree success on their own. Stanovich (1986) found that children must be able to decode independently the many unknown words that will be encountered in the early stages of reading.

Many approaches to word identification instruction were modeled for this study, and these strategies were practiced by the subjects during each reading lesson. In this study, Anna and Bella practiced reading unknown words by several different methods: by decoding through use of letter-sound associations, by analogy, by sight, and by contextual guessing or meaning. One strategy alone would not be appropriate for all students to use in identifying unknown words. For students to be able to read with automaticity, they need to use a variety of word recognition strategies. In conclusion of this research study, I believe it is best to teach several different strategies for word recognition in order to equip students with the tools necessary for becoming successful, independent readers.

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References

Allen, L. (1998). An Integrated strategies approach: making word identification instruction work for beginning readers. The Reading Teacher, 52(3), 254-268.

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2004). Words their way. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Ehri, L. (1994). Development of the ability to read words: update in theoretical models and process of reading. Newark: International Reading Association.

Ehri, L. & McCormick, S. (1998). Phases of word learning: implications for instruction with delayed and disabled readers. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 14(2), 135-163.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided reading: good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Leppanen, U. (2004). Development of reading skills among preschool and primary school pupils. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), 72-93.

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Mathes, P., Denton, C., Fletcher, J., Anthony, J., Francis, D., & Schatschneider, C. (2005). The Effects of theoretically different instruction and student characteristics on the skills of struggling readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(2), 148-182.

Morris, D. (2008). Diagnosis and correction of reading problems. New York: The Guilford Press.

Morris, D. (2005). The Howard street tutoring manual. New York: The Guilford Press.

Samuels, S.J. (1979). The method of repeated reading. The Reading Teacher, 32, 403-408.

Stanovich, K. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Newark: International Reading Association.

White, T.G. (2005). Effects of systematic and strategic analogy-based phonics on grade 2 students' word reading and reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(2), 234-255.

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