Table Of ContentScientific Realism
in Studies of Reading
Scientific Realism
in Studies of Reading
Edited by
Alan D. Flurkey . Eric J. Paulson
Kenneth S. Goodman
Figure 5.1 from I Saw a Dinosaur, written by Joy Cowley and illustrated by Philip Webb, Rigby Literacy,
2000, is reprinted with permission.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scientific realism in studies of reading / editors Alan D. Flurkey, Eric J. Paulson,
Kenneth S. Goodman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8058-4989-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8058-4989-0 (alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8058-4990-5 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8058-4990-4 (alk. paper)
1. Reading. 2. Miscue analysis. I. Flurkey, Alan D., 1955- II. Paulson, Eric J. III.
Goodman, Kenneth S.
LB1050.S367 2008
372.21’8--dc22 2007015027
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CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Denny Taylor
Preface xiii
Section One THE STUDY OF READING: FROM DATA
TO THEORY
Introduction to Chapter 1 3
1 Miscue Analysis As Scientific Realism 7
Kenneth S. Goodman
Introduction to Chapter 2 23
2 Re-reading Eye-Movement Research: Support for
Transactional Models of Reading 25
Eric J. Paulson and Kenneth S. Goodman
Section Two SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND SYSTEMIC
FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTIC STUDIES OF READING
Introduction to Chapter 3 51
3 Words, Context, and Meaning in Reading 53
Peter H. Fries
Introduction to Chapter 4 83
4 Reimagining Literacy Competence: A Sociopsycholinguistic
View of Reading in Aphasia 85
Andrea García Obregón
vi CONTENTS
Section Three STUDIES OF BEGINNING READING
Introduction to Chapter 5 111
5 Seeing the Story for the Words: The Eye Movements of
Beginning Readers 113
Peter Duckett
Introduction to Chapter 6 129
6 What Eye Movement and Miscue Analysis Reveals About the
Reading Process of Young Bilinguals 131
Ann Ebe
Section Four STUDIES OF READING IN
NONALPHABETIC ORTHOGRAPHIES: SYLLABIC
ORTHOGRAPHY
Introduction to Chapter 7 153
7 The Reading Process in Arabic: Making Sense of Arabic
Print 155
Jassem Mohammad Al-Fahid and Kenneth S. Goodman
Section Five STUDIES OF READING IN
NONALPHABETIC ORTHOGRAPHIES: IDEOGRAPHIC
ORTHOGRAPHY
Introduction to Chapter 8 171
8 Ideographic Orthography: A Linguistic Description of
Written Chinese and Its Cueing Systems 173
Shaomei Wang and Yetta Goodman
Introduction to Chapter 9 193
9 Chinese and English Readings of Embedded Anomalies in
Written Texts 195
Koomi Kim, Yetta Goodman, Jingguo Xu, and Fredrick Gollasch
CONTENTS vii
Introduction to Chapter 10 213
10 Making Sense of Written Chinese: A Study of L2 Chinese
Readers’ Miscues 215
Shaomei Wang and Yetta Goodman
Section Six STUDIES OF READING THAT
RECONCEPTUALIZE “ERRORS” AND “FLUENCY”
Introduction to Chapter 11 245
11 Miscues and Eye Movements: Functions of Comprehension 247
Eric J. Paulson
Introduction to Chapter 12 265
12 Reading Flow 267
Alan D. Flurkey
Index 305
FOREWORD
Border Crossings: The Theoretical and
Conceptual Frameworks of Scientific Realism
I
f you asked me to name the reading theoretician who has had the
most influence in the 20th century and whose influence will last long
into the 21st, then without a moment of hesitation I would say Ken Good-
man. I would then tell you that Ken Goodman is a remarkable scientist,
realist, and humanist. I would add that Ken’s sense of the social, his under-
standings of the importance of community, and his support of young schol-
ars is exemplary within the academy and within public schools. If you asked
me to name some of the young scholars who Ken has mentored who have
themselves gone on to become major researchers and theoreticians in the
field of literacy, then I would tell you that Alan Flurkey and Eric Paulson are
at the top of the list. I would add that Alan Flurkey’s research on flow is in
itself revolutionary, that Eric Paulson has pioneered eye movement/miscue
analysis, and then I would then tell you that many of those who are on that
list are in Scientific Realism in Studies of Reading and would encourage you
to read the book.
If you said to me that the research conducted by Ken Goodman and his
colleagues has been rejected and that the pedagogical practices that have
emerged from his work have been rejected, then I would again tell you to
read Scientific Realism in Studies of Reading. I would encourage you to ques-
tion what you have been told and what you have read in academic journals
and in the popular media.
“We are at the most dangerous point in the history of American educa-
tion,” Ken Goodman says. “Teachers are being forced to teach absurd pro-
grams labeled as ‘evidence-based,’ schools are threatened with being closed
down, and thousands of kids are being pushed out of schools.” (Scholar’s
Forum: Language, Literacy, Politics and Public Education. Hofstra Univer-
sity, Hempstead, NY. November 2001)
Ask the questions behind the questions, I would urge. Do not reject unpop-
ular ideas unless you have a clear understanding of why they are unpopular.
In my own work, I am continuously engaged in such contemplation; in the
car, on a plane, at the grocery store I play with the social and the scientific,
and in the next couple of paragraphs I share some of that thinking to make
visible why I am so enthusiastic about this book and why I think those in
