Chapter I

Introduction

Reading is a thinking process that involves recognizing words and it allows students to

use his or her prior knowledge to make meaning of a text. In this process, miscues occurrences

explain students strategies used to overcome difficulties in reading. A miscue is an unexpected

response that occurs when the readers’ knowledge of language and concept of the world may not

match up with the text (Goodman, 1969). Miscues are defined as instances in oral reading when

a reader reads a text in the way that the person listening would not expect.

(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324306647_Miscue_analysis_A_glimpse_into_the_re

ading_process)

Miscue analysis is a means to use a running record for diagnosis to identify students'

specific difficulties. Not only is the running record a way to identify reading rate and reading

accuracy, but it also is a way to assess reading behaviors and identify reading behaviors that need

support. A miscue analysis is a great way to get some authentic information about a student's

reading skills, and a means to identify specific weaknesses.

The miscues to look for during the miscue analysis are mispronunciation, omission,

substitution, insertion, repetition, transposition and reversal. Most of the time, readers commit

mistakes on pronunciation. On greater aspects, five problem areas in English pronunciation are

identified. These can interfere with intelligibility when speaking in English. First is intonation.

Intonation refers to the paralinguistic vocal features such as: pitch, loudness, resonance, quality

and flexibility. Speakers vary these to show intent and emotion. Secondly,

stress is extremely important in English and carries a great deal of information. There is stress on
both word and sentence levels. Stress can show contrast, if the information is old or new, the

focus of the message and other information about the speaker’s intent. Third, thought groups or

how speakers group words into phrases to make their ideas clear. Thought groups put

information in understandable chunks to help lead the listener through the speaker’s message.

Next is linking or how we transition from word to word. It is based on the last sound of the first

word and the first sound of the next word. Without linking, speech sounds choppy and

disconnected. Lastly, vowels/consonants English is not a phonetic language, so it is often hard to

know how to pronounce a word by its spelling. Pronunciation in English is based on sounds, not

spelling. Some sounds in English (th for example) don’t exist in other languages. Error in these

areas can make it difficult to be understood by native English speakers. The degree of the

problem will vary depending on one’s native language, awareness of English pronunciation

rules, and personal differences in language learning ability.

(https://www.callearning.com/blog/2011/03/5-problem-areas-in-english-pronunciation/)

Since English is mostly the second language of most of Filipinos then they are really

capable of committing mistakes on the pronunciation of words considering the complexity of the

language. It is difficult to understand why such words are pronounced very differently from how

it is spelled. Sometimes, English language makes one go crazy like in pronouncing the words

cough, tough, and rough is not the same way in pronouncing though and dough although they

have almost the same spelling; the only difference is the initial letter. English vowels make it

really tricky to know how to say a word. “Way,” “weigh” and “whey” are all said the same, for

example, while “comb,” “bomb” and “tomb” are all pronounced differently. And there are a lot

more of those words pronounced far different from their spelling.

 However, there are even words, simple in their structures but are still mispronounced.

One of the problems behind this is the readers’ exposure to the world of words. The reader only

has limited time reading printed materials written in English and it is not taught to him or her

properly.

There are more factors that affect students’ pronunciation. One is students’ ages. The

younger your students are, the easier it is for them to acquire an accurate pronunciation – and it

becomes increasingly difficult as they age as the brain’s original plasticity diminishes, and it

becomes more rigid.
 Now that said, this does not mean adult students should give up trying to

improve their pronunciation. It just means they have to work harder. Another is learners’

attitudes. Research and studies consistently show that ESL students with a positive attitude

towards learning English learn faster. By the same token, students who are genuinely open-

minded and interested in improving their pronunciation often do improve it. It is truly amazing

what the right attitude can do.
 On the other hand, students who have prejudices or a natural

dislike for English will be less successful than those with a positive attitude and open mind. Next

is student motivation. Out of these first three internal factors, motivation is the one that can really

make a difference. Highly motivated students will in all likelihood have a better pronunciation.

Most simply want to fit in; they don’t want to be discriminated against because they have a

“funny” accent. Others, like adult learners, really need to speak clearly and effectively for

professional business communication.
 Fourth one is native language interference. Students

from different nationalities have varying degrees of difficulty learning proper pronunciation. The

difficulty depends on how different their native language is from English. The fifth thing that

affects pronunciation is exposure to English. It will come as no surprise that ESL students who
live in English-speaking environment acquire better pronunciation faster because they are

immersed in the language. But not all ESL students are immersed in an English-speaking

environment. The degree to which they are exposed to English on a daily basis will determine

how fast they’ll be able to improve their pronunciation. So, children who go to bilingual,

English-speaking schools should have a better pronunciation than those who study English only

a couple of times a week. Another factor that may be affecting your students’ ability to acquire

proper pronunciation is quite simply that it is not being explicitly taught in the classroom. This is

one of the things that ESL classes often lack and one of the things that makes a world of

difference in the acquisition of pronunciation.
 Students’ pronunciation largely depends on the

pronunciation they hear on a daily basis. If they are immersed in a community where most of the

individuals speak English with a non-native accent, this will surely influence their own

pronunciation. Moreover, if the teacher has a non-native accent, it will affect students’

pronunciation as well.
 Of course, you can teach English if your accent is not native perfect. But

it is your responsibility to strive to improve your pronunciation as much as you can. It is also

vital for you to encourage students to seek out native input, either by joining activities or groups

with English speakers or spending some time in an English-speaking country. Students must be

proactive in their hopes to secure the right English pronunciation, but teachers are the coaches in

this endeavor. These are the two sides of the pronunciation coin – partners working together to

achieve a common goal. One can’t achieve it without the other.

Reading without miscues sounds good, one develops fluency. Reading with fluency is

essential in conveying meaning of a text read. It is also important for motivation. A reader who is
fluent tends to love reading more. A reader who reads slow will have trouble meeting the

demand of their grade level.

Significance of the Study

This research is beneficial to the following:

Teachers. The results of the study would be utilized by teachers to improve their skills in

teaching reading and making instructional materials that would help students on reading words

properly and developing good reading behavior.

Students. This study would allow students to read freely to develop their good reading attitude.

This study would also improve their reading fluency.

Future Researchers. This may be used by future researchers to develop a teaching strategy that

alleviates the reading skills of students.

Statement of the Problem

Generally, this research aimed to identify the different types of miscues committed by

readers and their attitudes while reading. Specifically, it answers the following questions:

1. What are the problems encountered by the respondents in reading a particular passage?

2. What are the attitudes of the respondents while reading?

Objectives of the Study

1. To identify the different types of miscues in reading

2. To identify the attitudes of the respondents while reading

Scope and Delimitation

This study was delimited to the identification of the different types of miscues while

reading a text and the attitudes of the respondents while reading. Moreover, only 5 male Grade V

students of Arnap Elementary School, Cabugao, Ilocos Sur were subjects of the study. The study

was taken during the Second Quarter School Year 2019-2020.

Operational Definition of Terms

Miscues. Goodman (1969) introduced the idea of miscues as more than just “oral reading

errors”, but a way to understand children’s existing reading strategies and to help them learn

more effective new strategies. Goodman’s miscue analysis required a technical knowledge of

linguistic concepts and long subsequent analysis.

Mispronunciation. It refers to the act of pronouncing a word or sound wrongly.

Omission. During oral reading, the student omits a word that changes the meaning of the
sentence.

Substitution. Instead of reading the word in the text, a child substitutes a word that may or may
not make sense in the passage.

Insertion. An insertion is a word(s) added by the child that is not in the text.

Repetition. The student repeats a word or portion of the text.

Transposition. The child will change the position of the word in a sentence.

Reversal. A child will reverse the order of the print or the word. (from instead of form, etc.)
Theoretical Framework

On Types of Miscues in Reading

The miscues may tell behavior of students before, during and after reading.

Mispronunciation can mean that the reader is not familiar with the word he or she is reading. It

may be his or her first time to encounter it or he or she seldom reads and tends to forget the

correct pronunciation of the word. Does the inserted word detract from meaning? If not, it may

just mean the reader is making sense but also inserts. The reader may also be reading too fast. If

the insertion is something like using finished for finish, this should be addressed. When words

are omitted, it may mean weaker visual tracking. Determine if the meaning of the passage is

affected or not. If not, omissions can also be the result of not focusing or reading too fast. It may

also mean the sight vocabulary is weaker. Lots of repetition may indicate that the text is too

difficult. Sometimes readers repeat when they're uncertain and will repeat the word(s) to keep the

words coming as they regroup. Watch for altered meaning. Many reversals happen with young

readers with high-frequency words. It may also indicate that the student has difficulty with

scanning the text, left to right.

Sometimes a child will use a substitution because they don't understand the word being read.

Does the substitution make sense in the passage, is it a logical substitution? If the substitution

does not change the meaning, it is often enough to help the child focus on accuracy, because

he/she is reading from meaning, the most important skill. When a child reads too fast, the

tendency is to overlook the other words in the passage resulting to changing the order of the

words in the sentence in the purpose to read as much as possible all the words contained in the
sentence. (https://www.thoughtco.com/miscue-analysis-for-diagnosing-reading-difficulties-

3111062)

Most good readers actually skip over about 30% of the words their eyes see on a page -

yet they still come away with understanding what the text says. Decades of eye-tracking and

reading ability studies tell us that children and adults learn to skim over certain words on a page.

It's usually the small and high-frequency words that our eyes pass over, while seeking out and

fixating on the less common words we need to register in our minds. Not all word skimming falls

within the range of normal reading behavior, however. When we listen to a child read aloud, we

can identify miscues - those instances when a child leaves out a word or changes it in some way -

in order to better understand the nature of a reading struggle. Identifying and tracking miscues is

an important step in determining if a child needs targeted reading instruction or if they may have

a reading disability. (https://www.handinhandhomeschool.com/resources/reading/reading-

miscues.php)

On Miscue Analysis

Miscue analysis procedures include the collection and examination of a single and

complete oral reading experience followed by a retelling. The procedures and standards are

outlined in both the Goodman Taxonomy and the Reading Miscue Inventory (Goodman, Watson,

& Burke, 2005).

Miscue analysis differs significantly from other laboratory-centered or experimental

diagnostic and evaluative instruments in that miscue research studies reading in as natural a

condition as possible, with readers orally reading authentic and complete stories they have not
been exposed to before. In this way, miscue analysis provides a naturalistic viewpoint and the

resulting analysis of reading proficiency is both qualitative and quantitative.

To date, hundreds of studies on miscue analysis have been conducted from different

perspectives to explore the reading process, to evaluate readers, and to improve reading

instruction (Brown, Goodman, & Marek, 1996). Although their foci are different, these studies

have generally confirmed Goodman's model and theory of reading view that reading is a

meaning-seeking process in which readers use graphic, phonemic, syntactic, and semantic cues

to make sense of texts. Miscue analysis is an assessment that helps a teacher identify the cueing

systems used by a reader — the strategies a reader uses to make sense of a text. Instead of

focusing on errors, miscue analysis focuses on what the student is doing right, so that he or she

can learn to build on existing reading strategies. This section explains how to perform miscue

analysis and how to use what you learn from it to help your students.

A key assumption of miscue analysis is that what readers do is neither accidental nor

random. Rather, it is cued by language and personal experience (Goodman, 1973, p. 93). The

insights gained from miscue analysis have contributed to the development of the Goodman

Reading Model—a transactional, socio-psycholinguistic theory and model of reading.

Such analysis has made an ideological shift away from a deficit-oriented view of readers'

weaknesses toward a view that appreciates the linguistic strengths that readers bring to the

reading process as they construct meaning from a text. In addition, miscue analysis helps

researchers/teachers evaluate reading materials, and thus provides them with an objective basis

for selecting suitable texts for readers. The most basic contribution of miscue analysis to

knowledge of the reading process is its demonstration that reading is an active, receptive
language process. Miscue analysis also helps researchers/teachers analyze the oral reading of

individual readers. (https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Miscue_analysis)

Chapter II

Presentation of Data

The following is a consolidation of the miscues of the five respondents.

MISCUES
Respondent Mispronunciation Omission Substitution Insertion Repetition Transposition Reversal

1 love, species, boosts

movements,
lucky, duct
2 jokes, seems, able laugh to
laughter, involves love – love
blood, heart, to laugh
natural
3 people, able, relaxes, there is relieving
facial, vessels (a) by – by
immune, strong relieving
finally
4 job, even, movements, health
muscles improves
5 species, boosts, diseases
production, adds
relieving

Analysis

Based on the data given, obviously, readers commit mistakes by mispronunciation. Eight

words were mistakenly read by omission omitting the –s for every word – boosts, seems,

involves, relaxes, vessels, blood, movements, improves, adds. Three words were mistakenly read

by repetition. Two sets of group of words were transposed: instead of love to laugh it was read
laugh to love and instead of by relieving it was read relieving by. One committed insertion,

inserting a between there is and strong.

On mispronunciation, love, lucky, duct and job and production were mispronounced with

middle [o] sounds. This imply that the respondents were used to reading words with middle o

sounded as [o] sound. Species, movements, facial, able, people and immune were mispronounced

as by syllable – is-pe-sis, mo-ve-ments, fa-si-al, ab-le, pe-op-le, im-mu-ne. The reason behind

may be because they really are not familiar with the words and they just read it the way they are

spelled, the tendency the respondents will be doing having a great skill in reading Tagalog

words. Laughter mispronounced as low-ter because it resembles the word daughter. Even,

natural and finally were mispronounced sounding the vowel sounds as short vowel sounds; e-

ven, na-tu-ral, fi-na-li. The respondents have lack of knowledge on the different vowel sounds.

They are used to reading Tagalog texts. Heart is mispronounced as hƏrt, muscles as muskƏls,

and relieving as relaIving. The respondents again have low knowledge of vowel sounds. They

may be inattentive when the words were read during reading class.

Conclusion

Because of complexity of English words, Filipino readers are confused on how to read

words properly. Their attitude like poor love in reading and inattentive in class may add to the

problem. Other factor is the kind of text materials they are exposed to and the manner and

frequency they use the language. The more they speak the language, there is greater chance to

correct them when they commit mistakes or mispronunciation. Using the language develops

fluency gaining confidence lessening the occurrence of miscues other than mispronunciation.
Recommendation

There should be a continuous motivation for students to read. Retain and maintain the

reading programs of school. If there is none, create one for it is a good avenue to inculcate love

for reading. For teacher, devise a strategy where readers can have greater retention of what they

are reading so they won’t forget easily how words are read properly.