Remedial readers reading for meaning: the use of the linguistic context when words are read correctly

Summary

In a study which focused on words read correctly (as opposed to oral reading errors) the ability of 52 11‐year‐old remedial readers to make use of the linguistic context was investigated. Three reading passages which differed in ‘accessibility’ but not in linguistic difficulty were used. The results gave a clear indication that not only were the children able to make successful use of linguistic cues in solving (potentially) ‘difficult’ words, but that they relied on such textual information to some extent. The ‘context‐dependency’ illustrated was shown to be affected by both decoding ability and text accessibility. It was suggested that the examination of what happens when words are read correctly is important if the ability of remedial readers to read for meaning is not to be underestimated.