A Comparison of Elementary School Students’ Word Identification According to Different Text Types.

This study investigated the effects of different text types on elementary school students’ word identification. Eighty-four students in the 6th grade of an elementary school were sampled for the experiment. Students were divided into two groups and treated during an 8 week period. Students were taught reading instruction using different types of reading materials: Decodable texts and high-frequency vocabulary texts. The reading materials were chosen from popular textbook series and revised based on CWF (Critical Word Factor). Texts were based on curriculum vocabulary, and matching communication functions in the textbook and the word patterns which had low learning difficulties such as CV, VC, CVC, CCVC. After the experiment, a post-test was carried out on students’ word identification abilities and the students’ reading miscue was analyzed using Reading Miscue Analysis for students’ word strategies use. The research found that students in the decodable text group made significant progress in their word identification than the high-frequency vocabulary text group. It means that the decodable texts scaffolded for using word identification strategies. It was shown that they advanced to the latter part of the word identification phase that they have sufficient knowledge about letter-sound relationships for word decoding. Based on the results, several suggestions on textbook development and reading instruction are discussed.