8/11/2019 Journal of Literacy Research 1985 Taft 163 79

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8/11/2019 Journal of Literacy Research 1985 Taft 163 79

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Journal of Reading Behavior

1985, VolumeXVII No. 2

THE EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

N D OR L RE DING CCUR CY

ON MISCUES ND COMPREHENSION

Mary Lynn Taft and Lauren Leslie

M arquette University, School of Education,

Milwaukee, W I53233

Abstract

The effects of prior knowledge (high, low) and oral reading accuracy (95% + ,

90-94% ) on miscues and comprehension were examined by requiring 57 third-

grade average readers to read an expository passage orally. The children had

either high prior knowledge of the topic, defined as completing a classroom

instructional unit and verified by a free-association test, or low prior

knowledge. Children with high prior knowledge made fewer miscues which

resulted in meaning loss (p < .05), and their miscues were less graphically

similar to the text word

(p