Qualitative Reading Error Analysis in Greek and English in Primary School Children

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to identify, through miscue analysis, the errors made   by Greek students, who learn English as a foreign language, in an English and Greek word reading accuracy task. The participants were 78 Greek speaking children in the final two grades of primary school who attended English language centers. Standardised and informal reading accuracy tests were administered to children. The results showed that the children made similar types of errors in the two languages with different frequency, and they transferred strategies from Greek to English. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of the role of the opaque orthographic system on the reading ability of students learning a foreign language.