Since the assessment and diagnosis in education and intervention of reading is of great importance, many of the reading experts are interested in presenting tools for assessment of abilities such as word recognition. Therefore in this study we have developed a tool to assess word recognition for pupils who have passed first elementary grade and we have analyzed its validity and reliability. All the words which have chosen are among the words which are in the text of Farsi book’s (first grade). The criteria of word selection are the same independent variables such as frequency, number of syllable, grammatical category, word structure, regularity, syllable pattern and semantic category. In order to choose the target words, we have identified distribution of mentioned variables in the book. According to these findings, the interpretation of teachers and results of pilot study, some words were suggested by the researchers. Forty-five words were selected when certified specialists presented their best choices. The content validity of the tool were studied by certified specialists for analysis of the reliability of this tool, the investigation was performed by two certified speech and language pathologists in an interval of 7-10 days among 60 pupils (30 girls & 30 boys) of second grade and their responses and reaction time were recorded. The internal findings of reliability showed, the identification quotient of 12 words of 45 mentioned words reflected these words were so simple therefore the words were eliminated. Thus, the remaining words became 33. Pearson test for studying external reliability revealed the correlation between pupils’ scores in sequenced performances was of value (p<0.01). However, repeated measure analysis showed if the test is frequently performed, pupils (girls & boys) were trained gradually. We pointed out than the results were different in girls and boys so that it is of important that girls performed better than boys in each performance. However, boys showed this progress up to end of the activity.
Type of Study:
Research |
Subject:
Special Received: 2002/08/17 | Accepted: 2002/10/23 | Published: 2002/12/22