An investigation of silent versus aloud reading comprehension of elementary students using Maze assessment procedures

Many reading comprehension measures require the student to read silently. When students read silently, important information (e.g., consistent reading errors) may not be identified. It may also be difficult to detect a student who is choosing not to read the passage. For this reason, investigating whether there is a significant difference in comprehension under silent and aloud reading conditions is important to determine under what conditions reading comprehension should be measured accurately. This study was designed to investigate possible differences between silent and aloud reading comprehension scores on Maze assessment probes. Pearson product correlations were used to investigate possible relationships between Maze comprehension scores (silent and aloud), WCPM, and the Broad Reading Cluster Score of the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH). Participants were 89 first- and second-grade students from an elementary school located in the Southeastern United States. Each student was exposed to four assessment conditions, which included WCPM, three tests from the WJ-III ACH, and Maze reading comprehension passages. Significant correlations were found for WCPM, aloud and silent Maze, and the WJ-III ACH Broad Reading Cluster Score. No significant difference was found between aloud and silent reading comprehension, which suggests that reading comprehension can be measured accurately under either reading condition. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.