BILINGUAL ORAL READING MISCUES OF HISPANIC LEARNING DISABLED AND NON-LEARNING DISABLED FOURTH, FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSITION INTO ENGLISH READING

Few studies in the area of learning disabilities have dealt specifically with Hispanic students. Little is known about these students' characteristics using test instruments which focus on semantic information and reading strategies, and which view these strategies within the context of a first and second language learning interaction.

The purpose of this study was to identify, evaluate, and compare the reading miscues used by different groups of successful Hispanic readers and learning disabled Hispanic readers. Forty Hispanic students representing two linguistically different groups of learners, those whose primary reading language was Spanish and those who first learned to read in English, were selected. Learning disabled and successful readers were equally represented within the two linquistic groups.

The Reading Miscue Inventory was used as the primary research instrument to analyze the oral reading miscues of the students. Information relating to each student's home and school language background was also collected.

Analysis of the data focused primarily on identifying miscue similarities and differences among the four groups of students tested. These patterns were examined to determine whether they suggested misinterpretations which might lead to a mislabeling of students as learning disabled. ANOVA and factor analysis statistical tests were used to determine whether there were significant differences between groups on any of five miscue categories, and to identify clusters of variables which varied together in any significant way.

The results indicated a significant difference between groups in four of the eight hypotheses tested. Learning disabled readers were significantly different from good readers in miscues reflecting the ability to read for meaning. Good readers also differed significantly from learning disabled readers in miscues made in second language reading.

Good Spanish primary language readers made miscues which generally showed a stronger USE of grapho-phoneme strategies and transferred these skills to English reading. Good English readers made very little use of grapho-phoneme strategies in English reading, but switched their strategy use when reading in Spanish, their second language.