Examining Substitution Miscues in Oral Reading

The current study was designed to examine substitution miscues to help us understand reading processes of young foreign readers. Data was obtained from twelve primary school students, employing a modified version of miscue analysis where participants were asked to read the same storybook aloud twice. The second oral reading was followed by translation of the story. The number of substitution miscues were counted and categorised into two types: non-word and real-word substitutions. The analysis shows two primary findings. First, more than thirty percent of substitution miscues were repeated across the two oral readings. Second, non-word substitutions outnumbered real-word substitutions in the two oral readings. It is suggested that Goodman’s ‘window’ metaphor for miscue analysis may be misleading and that miscue data should be used with a degree of caution, without the assumption that it can serve as a transparency that will reveal all aspects of reading processes.