University researchers study eye movement and miscue analysis

New research in eye movement and miscue analysis, a diagnostic tool to understand the reading process, shows that a reader doesn’t look at every letter or every word, making the “sound it out” strategy ineffective.

Koomi Kim, a new professor in language, literacy and culture at New Mexico State University’s College of Education, conducted a 2007 study with fellow researchers Marge Knox and Joel Brown from the University of Arizona in which the eye movement of young readers was recorded in order to discover what strategies are used while reading and how the reader constructs meaning.

“The myth is that we look at every single word and letter when we read,“ Kim said. “We are finding out that children look at about 70% of the text and adults look at about 60%.” Read about their study in The Las Cruces Sun-News online.