Do nonword reading tests for children measure what we want them to? An analysis of year 2 error responses

Journal article


Castles, Anne, Polito, Vince, Pritchard, Stephen C., Anandakumar, Thushara and Coltheart, Max. (2018). Do nonword reading tests for children measure what we want them to? An analysis of year 2 error responses. Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties. 23(2), pp. 153-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/19404158.2018.1549088
AuthorsCastles, Anne, Polito, Vince, Pritchard, Stephen C., Anandakumar, Thushara and Coltheart, Max
Abstract

Nonword reading measures are widely used to index children’s phonics knowledge, and are included in the Phonics Screening Check currently implemented in England and under consideration in Australia. However, critics have argued that the use of nonword measures disadvantages good readers, as they will be influenced by their strong lexical knowledge and err by making word errors (e.g. reading flarm as “farm”). We tested this claim by examining the errors made by a group of 64 Year 2 children when reading aloud a set of simple nonwords. We found that stronger word readers were less likely to make a word error response than weaker word readers, with their most prevalent type of error being another nonword that was highly similar to the target. We conclude that nonword reading measures are a valid index of phonics knowledge, and that these tests do not disadvantage children who are already reading words well.

Keywordsteaching; reading; phonics; children; year 2
Year01 Jan 2018
JournalAustralian Journal of Learning Difficulties
Journal citation23 (2), pp. 153-165
PublisherRoutledge
ISSN1940-4158
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/19404158.2018.1549088
Web address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19404158.2018.1549088?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range153-165
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Print24 Nov 2018
Publication process dates
Accepted12 Nov 2018
Deposited06 Dec 2024
Additional information

© 2018 Learning Difficulties Australia.

Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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