文学・芸術・文化／第 29 巻第 1 号／ 2017．9

Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as

Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom

Fumihisa Fujinaga

1 Introduction
Oral reading can be used in the informal assessment of learners, and it is

typically based on classroom instruction（Alderson, 2000）. An oral reading test

commonly entails the following steps: Learners are asked to read a piece of text

aloud（generally with a short preparation time before reading）

, and then their

performance is scored according to a particular scoring criterion, and judgments

are made about their ability（Alderson, 2000; Heaton, 1975）

. Regarding the use

of oral reading as a testing tool, there seems to be a belief or an assumption that

a test involving reading aloud may reflect some aspects of foreign language

skills. In fact, a survey of ESL teachers revealed that they valued the use of

students oral reading to assess aspects of written language processing, such as

knowledge of the grapheme‒phoneme relationship, knowledge of syntactic

structures, and overall comprehension of text （Griffin, 1992）

. Mozumi and

Adachi（2004）, in surveying teachers of Japanese as a foreign language, found

that the teachers had the students read aloud in order to evaluate their reading

comprehension, strengths and weaknesses in reading, and general achievement

levels.

Against this background, this article discusses and examines the possibilities

of oral reading for informal assessment. First, we briefly analyse the process of

oral reading in order to determine what is involved in reading a written text

aloud. Regarding the outcome of the analysis, we then elucidate some topics̶

theoretical and practical̶that can be highlighted in the implementation of oral

reading tests.

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

2 Brief Analysis of Oral Reading for Assessment

2.1 Reading-aloud Process

The process of reading aloud can be analysed in the following two phases:

the processing of written language and its speech output. The former

constitutes a series of internal processes that are in line with the general

processes of reading. It begins with the decoding of words and the

identification of their meanings by accessing the mental lexicon（i.e. the memory

in which lexical information is stored） in a process called word recognition

（Grabe, 2009）
. Next is sentence parsing, which involves the grammatical

analysis of a sentence into meaningful word groups （Grabe, 2009; Grabe &

Stoller, 2011）. For example, The pen fell on the floor can be analysed as a

sentence consisting of two constituent units（i.e. the pen fell and on the floor ）.

Comprehension then ensues on the basis of word recognition and sentence

parsing. In this process, the reader generates basic clause-level units of

meaning（Grabe & Stoller, 2011）

. The meaning is something literally expressed

in the text and is independent of something outside the text（e.g. a particular

context of use）. As the processing progresses, the reader builds a situation

model of interpretation（Grabe, 2009）by connecting the text with the context

and the reader s existing knowledge of general concepts, grammar, vocabulary,

and pragmatics（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）

.
Phonetic planning of articulation comprises an operation for exploring how

text should be articulated with appropriate pronunciation and prosody. Thus,

an internal speech rendition of text is built. The process of phonetic planning is

assumed to rely on the preceding phases of reading, that is, word recognition,

sentence parsing, and comprehension. After a phonetic plan is made, it is

executed in the form of speech output, which involves the overt production of

speech sounds.

Figure 1 illustrates a sketch model of the discussed oral reading process.1

The processing components inside the square frame （i.e. word recognition,

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sentence parsing, comprehension and phonetic planning）work in the reader s

mind（i.e. as covert and unobservable processing components）. Articulation,

which is outside the square, is an overt component that can be directly observed.

The processes of word recognition, sentence parsing, and comprehension are

assumed to work in parallel with, have an influence on, and complement each

other（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）

. These processes are depicted in Figure 1,

with solid-line arrows between word recognition, sentence parsing, and

comprehension in both directions. The broken-line arrows connecting both

word recognition and sentence parsing with phonetic planning indicate that

phonetic planning can be carried out （and articulation eventually achieved）

without comprehension （or remembering much of what was read）. This

phenomenon has often been referred to as parrot reading or eye-mouth reading

（Miyasako, 2008; West, 1955; Yonezaki & Ito, 2012）.

Visual input

Word recognition

Sentence parsing

Comprehension

Phonetic planning

Speech output
(Articulation)

 A simplified model of oral reading

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

2.2 General Assumptions of Oral Reading Tests

The model of the oral reading process discussed in the previous section is

based on the following assumption: Oral reading contains several distinct internal

and external components, some of which may function interactively; in this

regard, reading-aloud behaviour can be considered as a manifestation of the

processes of these components; if so, oral reading supposedly requires effective

and coordinated operation of the aforementioned component skills.

This general assumption about oral reading seems to suggest that there are

two possible directions in the use of oral reading tests. The first involves

examining the overt aspects of student performance, which correspond to

speech output , as shown in Figure 1. Here what is considered is the quality of

articulatory production per se, or something that can be observed directly. This

type of assessment, therefore, mainly concerns phonological and articulatory

aspects of performance（e.g. pronunciation, intonation, stress, rate of reading, and

other aspects of speech delivery）

. The second direction entails investigating

the processes that underlie students oral reading performance: word recognition,

sentence parsing, and phonetic planning（Figure 1）

. Notably, they are usually

deemed covert because they are generally unobservable and can only be

inferred.

To summarise, from a componential view of oral reading, which dissects the

process into its components as displayed in Figure 1, the outcome of reading

aloud（i.e. overt reading-aloud behaviour）can be compared to the sum of the

component processes, which is supposed to contain and mirror different aspects

of performance（both internal and external）. Therefore, concerning what can

be assessed through oral reading, the following two perspectives should be

distinguished: assessing oral reading performance and assessing the processes

that underlie the performance. In the following sections, possible targets of

assessment in oral reading tests are examined from these points of view.

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3 Assessing Oral Reading Performance

3.1 Pronunciation

One type of information gained from students oral reading performance is

about their pronunciation skills in the target language. Pronunciation is one of

the core skills in using spoken language （Goh & Burns, 2012）, and the

production of individual sounds seems to be a fundamental skill of language

production. Underhill（1987）argues that reading aloud is suitable for assessing

this aspect of performance. In practice, it seems important to consider what

phonemes（i.e. consonants and vowels）should be the targets of assessment. In

English, for example, it is generally accepted that there are 24 consonants and 20

vowels （Richards & Schmidt, 2010）

. To implement an oral reading test,

teachers designate particular phonemes as evaluation targets and prepare an

appropriate scoring key for each phoneme.

The vocalisation of connected text not only requires the skills for

pronouncing individual sounds but also entails numerous speech features such as

assimilation, elision, reduction, and linking, if the text is to be read aloud at a

natural speed. Assimilation refers to a phonological process in which a speech

sound is modified under the influence of a nearby sound and becomes similar or

identical to it（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）

. For example, when a /b/ sound is

followed by an /m/, the preceding /b/ may be transformed into a sound that is
highly similar to an /m/ sound, as in the word submarine （e.g. pronounced not

as［|sʌbməriːn］but as［|sʌmməriːn］）
. Elision is the omission of a sound or

sounds in speech, in which, for example, the word mostly can be pronounced as

［'məʊsli］without a /t/ sound（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）

. Linking takes place

when the final sound of a word connects to the initial sound of the next word

（e.g. blue ink pronounced with a /w/-like sound between the words blue and

ink ; Richards & Schmidt, 2010）.

By having students read aloud and observing their performance, it is

possible to make an instructional judgment about how well they produce the

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aforementioned phonological features in the reading aloud of connected text.

3.2 Stress, Rhythm, and Intonation

Prosodic features of language production can also be assessed from students

reading-aloud performance. Prosody refers to the aspects of pronunciation

which extend over stretches of speech rather than individual sounds

（Pennington, 1996）
. It includes the patterns of stress in individual words and
sentences as well as those of rhythm and intonation in longer utterances

（Pennington, 1996）.

Reading orally with the mentioned features calls on the reader to add some

elements of meaning at sentence and discourse levels （Underhill, 1987）

.

Intonation, for example, is used to carry information over and above what is

literally expressed（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）. The units of meaning（i.e. idea

units）generated in the internal processes of reading aloud usually correspond to

prosodic units（e.g. pause groups, tone groups, and breath groups; Pennington,

1996）. Therefore, the speech output of oral reading seems to have a natural

association with sentence parsing and comprehension.

3.3 Rate of Reading

The rate（or speed）of reading aloud is one of the most recognisable aspects
of oral reading performance. This relates to an aspect of fluency, which may be

characterised by a certain type of native-likeness or naturalness （Housen,

Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012; Richards & Schmidt, 2010）. The practical consideration

here is the rate at which reading should be regarded as natural and hence

appropriate in the evaluation of performance. A review of related literature

shows that, in American English, the rate of speech ranges from 130 to 330

wpm,2 from which a fair generalisation can be made that a possible normal rate

may be approximately 200 wpm（Takefuta, 1984）

.

For native speakers, reading aloud at this rate may be a normal and

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natural action. However, for foreign language learners, it may not always be

so, for it is likely that they cannot operate their articulatory muscles in the same

manner that native speakers do （Kadota & Noro, 2001）. Foreign language

learners, therefore, may have difficulty in reading （orally） at a speed of

approximately 200 wpm.

Then what is the speed that can be a benchmark of evaluation for foreign

language learners? Takanashi and Ushiro （2000） pointed out that a normal
reading rate could be between 100 and 150 wpm and that it was the rate at

which oral reading is frequently conducted in EFL classrooms. If this is the

case, it may be an idea for teachers to set a speed of approximately 125 wpm as

a normal rate for foreign language leaners.

4 Assessing Underlying Aspects of Performance

4.1 Word Recognition Skills

Reading aloud can be used to assess students skills in word recognition. A

crucial dimension of assessment constitutes knowledge of sound-spelling rules.

Processing in word recognition requires the skills to translate written language

into the spoken forms in the mind（e.g. the word rain into /reın/）
, which is

called decoding （Kadota & Noro, 2001）. This presupposes a solid knowledge

base of sound-spelling relationships on the part of the reader. Therefore, it is

assumed that reading-aloud behaviour can manifest the reader s knowledge of

sound-spelling rules.

Another dimension of assessment is decoding fluency, which can be

considered as how quickly the reader is able to decode words. Decoding

fluency can be evaluated by determining the speed at which the student read

aloud （or sound out）

. However, because of learners limited command of

articulatory skills in a foreign language（see also 3.3）, performance should be

examined according to a criterion different from that for native speakers.

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4.2 Knowledge of grammar

As indicated in 2.1, reading aloud includes the process of sentence parsing,

in which a sentence is divided into word groups or constituent units of meaning.

This aspect of syntactic possessing can be assessed with the use of oral reading

tests. An underlying assumption here is that successful analysis of a sentence

into units of meaning relies on knowledge of grammar, such as that of

determiners, nouns, verbs, prepositions, and tenses.

In practice, the performance aspect subject to evaluation is whether the

reader s grouping of words in text is appropriate. Because word groups are

generally surrounded by pauses and hence form pause groups （Pennington,

1996）, performance assessment involves observing students pausing behaviour

（i.e. where they pause when reading aloud）

. For example, if a student reads

aloud When I was a student, I liked playing tennis. as When I / was a /

student, I / liked playing / tennis.（slashes indicate pauses）

, then he or she may

be judged to fail to apply his or her grammatical knowledge to performance or

to have insufficient knowledge of grammar.

4.3 Comprehension

As discussed previously, it can be assumed that reading-aloud performance

builds on lexical, grammatical, phonological and comprehension processing. If

so, a student who reads aloud with little comprehension is more likely to make

errors in prosody and to misplace phrase boundary pauses（Nara & Noda, 2003）.

It is possible, then, that high performance suggests clear comprehension of the

text（Underhill, 1987）
.

When having EFL students read aloud for assessment, however, teachers

should remember that the students cognitive abilities might not be used

sufficiently for text comprehension（or for the memory of what they have read）
.

In the process of reading aloud, a major amount of cognitive capacity for

information processing can be consumed in carrying out the processes of word

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recognition, sentence parsing, phonetic planning, and articulation.3 Concerning

this issue, several studies suggest that reading aloud may negatively affect text

comprehension （e.g. Bernhardt, 1983; Hatori, 1977; Takahashi & Takanashi,

1987）.

If teachers ensure that students attention capacity is saved for

comprehension processing, reading aloud can be accompanied by comprehension.

For this to happen, the use of oral reading tests should be restricted to text
materials that are within learners ability（Nakano, 2015; Nara & Noda, 2003）
.

However, when the attention of students is directed toward comprehension, it is

possible that the quality of articulation might not be attended accordingly,

resulting in a situation in which, for example, the student reads with clear

comprehension but with poor pronunciation. If this happens, evaluating

comprehension from the quality of reading-aloud performance will be misleading.

Therefore, given the somewhat unstable relationship between the quality of

reading-aloud output and comprehension, teachers cannot rely entirely on oral

reading tests to assess text comprehension. Instead, it seems safer to use them

as complements to other type of tests.

4.4 Proficiency

The coordination of the component processes should be required for a

successful speech output of written text（see 2.1）
. If a learner s proficiency in

the target language is higher, his or her skills in executing the processes is more

likely to be higher. This leads to an assumption that there may be a possible

link between reading-aloud performance and foreign language proficiency, on

which oral reading for proficiency assessment seems to be based. In an

empirical investigation, Ikeda and Takeuchi（2002）examined how the scores of

an oral reading test were relevant to those of a cloze test. In their study, the

cloze test was assumed to measure general proficiency in a foreign language. It

was found that the oral reading test scores significantly correlated with the cloze

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

test scores with correlation coefficients of over .70. From this result, Ikeda and

Takeuchi（2002）argued that learners proficiency levels might be reflected in

their oral reading performance. In a similar line of argument, Miyasako（2002）

investigated the relationship between the ability of Japanese high school

students to read aloud and their proficiency levels in English. He analysed their

scores of reading-aloud performance and those of a proficiency test and found a

significant correlation between them.

The two studies cited appear to have given some support to the use of oral

reading for assessing learner s proficiency. However, in considering the

relationship between attention capacity and reading aloud（see the discussion in

4.3）, the extent to which oral reading tests can measure learners proficiency

levels consistently is seemingly open to argument. Teachers, therefore, should

be aware of this limitation so that they can make a proper judgment about

students proficiency levels.

The method of scoring oral reading performance may also affect the results

of assessment.4 In connection with this issue, Fujinaga （2003）, using a

quantitative method of scoring（e.g. counting the number of pauses）

, found no

significant relationship between reading-aloud performance and reading

proficiency in EFL. By contrast, Fujinaga （2016） adopted teacher holistic

evaluation as an assessment method and found that the yielded scores had a
significant correlation with the participants EFL reading proficiency levels.

The findings of these studies suggest that teachers should pay careful attention

to how student performance is scored in order to obtain valid and reliable

performance data.

The effect of scoring methods on assessment results is not straightforward

and further research is required. In practice, however, teachers should

understand the methodological aspects of scoring that can be involved in the

evaluation of performance, so that they can devise a method of scoring that is as

valid and reliable as possible. This issue is discussed more in detail later in a

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subsequent section.

5 Practical Issues on Implementation

5.1 General Strengths and Weaknesses of Oral Reading Tests

One of the advantages of oral reading tests is that there may be some

flexibility in preparing test materials. Teachers can choose the test passages

with due consideration to the style, topic, and difficulty of the target language
（Underhill, 1987）
. When necessary, teachers can devise text material that

optimally covers the points taught in class.

In addition, for optimal comparability and reliability of marking results, the

same material can be employed for all students. Even when different materials

are used, they can be edited and modified for more valid comparability of the

test results（Underhill, 1987）

.

Another advantage of oral reading tests is the relative simplicity and ease of

administration, which assist learners in understanding what to do. Also, the

tests are generally quick to score（Underhill, 1987）.

A weakness of having students read aloud for assessment is related to lack

of authenticity . Students will rarely be required to read a text passage or

conversation aloud in a foreign language outside the classroom（Alderson, 2000;

Underhill, 1987）and therefore they may feel that the task of reading aloud is not
realistic and valid. Furthermore, oral reading has few communicative elements,

because the exchange of new information is unlikely to occur in oral reading

tests（Underhill, 1987）
.

Oral reading, to a large extent, taps reading skills, as suggested earlier.

This can be another disadvantage when teachers conduct a reading-aloud test as

part of speaking assessment. If the student s speaking skills are well developed

but their reading skills are not, then there is a possibility that the assessment

cannot be performed properly. Moreover, reading aloud can be regarded as a

discrete skill, even in first language reading. The skills of reading aloud may

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

vary from person to person and even proficient readers are not always confident

in their reading-aloud skills（Underhill, 1987）

.

5.2 Procedure-related Issues

An oral reading test can be conducted in various ways, depending on its

purpose and setting. A common procedure for an oral reading test consists of

the following three steps: 1）pre-reading; 2）reading aloud; and 3）a post-reading
task.

In pre-reading, students are often allowed to read the script silently so that

they can discern the phonetic and prosodic features corresponding to the text

and meaning（Underhill, 1987）

. Thus, for example, phonetic planning can be

enhanced before speech output.

One role of pre-reading is to mitigate the cognitively demanding nature of

reading aloud, that is, the necessity to carry out linguistic processing and

articulatory processing simultaneously.5 Pre-reading allows students to

negotiate the processing stages from word recognition to phonetic planning; thus,

they can sufficiently attend to the articulation of text. This is important for

foreign language learners （particularly those with lower proficiency） because

they often have limited facility in articulation（see also 3.3）.

A post-reading task can be incorporated into an oral reading test. In many

cases, particularly when the assessment target is text comprehension, the post-

reading task requires students to answer comprehension questions or something

similar. The oral reading component of the Eiken speaking test, for example,

includes a post-reading question-and-answer task, based on which the examinees

speaking skills are tested. However, a post-reading task is not a mandatory

component. In fact, the oral reading section of the TOEIC Speaking and

Writing Tests does not require the examinee to perform a post-reading task

because the section focuses entirely on the evaluation of pronunciation skills.

Regarding the purposes of assessment, teachers should decide whether students

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should perform an additional task after reading aloud.

6 Perspectives on Scoring Read-aloud Performance

6.1 Fluency and Accuracy

Evaluation of oral reading essentially entails observing the phonological

features of performance. One perspective of characterizing such features

involves examining the fluency of oral reading. Fluency, in general, can be

considered regarding the ease, eloquence, and smoothness of performance

（Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012）

. In the assessment of oral reading fluency,

the possible scoring indices are the rate of reading, pauses（number, location,

and length）
, and dysfluency markers such as self-corrections, repetitions, and

hesitation（Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012; Rakinski, 2003）

.

Oral reading accuracy is typically analysed according to learners reading

errors, which include mispronunciations, substitutions, and omissions（Rakinski,

2003）. Mispronunciations refer to errors made in the production of speech

sounds（e.g. a failure to articulate an /s/ sound）. Substitutions are errors in

which learners replace one item （generally, a word） in text by another

（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）. An omission refers to an error in which the

learner skips a word in the text.

Accuracy assessment considers the degree to which a student s performance

（or the ability to produce it）differs from the ideal one（e.g. a scoring norm）

（Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder, 2012）

. In the process of evaluating accuracy,

acceptability and appropriateness of performance are also accounted for. In this

view, for example, it is possible that a substitution made in oral reading may not

be considered an error as long as it is acceptable . Suppose that a student reads

aloud I will do it instead of I will do it . In this case, the

teacher may not regard it as a substitution error, because the overall meaning is

unchanged and the student is highly likely to comprehend the sentence.

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6.2 Analytic and Holistic Scoring

The methods of scoring reading-aloud performance can be classified into the

following two general types: analytic and holistic. Analytic scoring evaluates

the student s performance on a task according to its distinct features and assigns

separate scores to each feature（Richards & Schmidt, 2010）

. In the case of an

oral reading test, pronunciation, intonation, fluency, and accuracy may be

assessed and scored separately. An example of a set of analytic scoring

categories for EFL oral reading is shown in Table 1.6 In practice, for

convenience, a total score is sometimes calculated by summing the individual

analytic scores. However, in general, they are not combined but are presented

separately in the form of a performance or test profile. The profile can be

useful not only as feedback to students but also as diagnostic information for

teachers to plan and improve their instruction （Genesee & Upshur, 1996）.

However, determining a separate score for each category can sometimes be

complicated and time-consuming （Nakamura, 2004）

, particularly when the

number of scoring categories is high.

In holistic scoring, on the other hand, a student s performance is not

separated into distinct parts for assessment but is evaluated as a whole and

assigned a single score（or a rating）according to a scoring guide（Genesee &

Upshur, 1996; Richards & Schmidt, 2010）. An example of a holistic scoring scale
is presented in Table 2.7

One advantage of holistic scoring concerns practicality. The scoring

process can be completed more quickly and easily compared with analytic

scoring（Nakamura, 2004）. This is of great benefit to teachers seeking to assess

student performances efficiently.

However, in contrast to analytic scores, holistic scores do not indicate details

about specific aspects of performance and, hence, contribute less to further

improvement of teaching and learning（Genesee & Upshur, 1996）

. In addition,

summarising specific aspects of performance into a single score is not always

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easy when students skills in the aspects are uneven. For a learner who reads

aloud smoothly with highly intelligible pronunciation but with substantial

inappropriate intonation, how to score the learner s performance seems

debatable. If a holistic score is assigned to the performance, it could be

misleading（Nakamura, 2004）and thus threaten the validity of the evaluation.

Holistic scores are typically determined based on teachers overall

impressionistic assessments or judgments. Analytic scores can be assigned

either through teacher rating or some form of more objective （or quantitative）

measurement by, for instance, calculating the words read per minute, counting

the number of pauses, and measuring the lengths of the pauses. Extracting

quantitative data for a set of analytic evaluation categories from students

reading aloud can be time-consuming and difficult. However, with the help of

computer software for speech analysis, it seems possible for the marking process

to become quicker and easier.

Table 1

Pronunciation Intonation Fluency Accuracy

3: Highly intelligible 3: Appropriate 3: Smooth and relatively fast 3: Very few errors
2: Generally intelligible 2: Generally appropriate 2: Generally smooth, but 2: Some errors that are
1: Intelligible at times 1: Not appropriate occasionally slow mostly minor
1: Slow, with frequent pauses 1: Many minor and major
errors

Table 2

Score Description

Reading pace is smooth, appropriate, and relatively fast with few

3 mistakes in reading-aloud performance. Pronunciation is highly
intelligible and intonation is appropriate.

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

Reads with occasional pauses but generally smooth. Makes some

2 reading errors that are mostly minor. Pronunciation and intonation
are generally intelligible and appropriate.

Reads with frequent pauses at a generally slow pace. Makes many

1 reading errors, produces numerous unintelligible pronunciations, and
uses inappropriate intonation.

7 Conclusion
This article has discussed several practical and theoretical topics concerning

the use of oral reading as informal assessment in the context of foreign language

teaching and learning. In the course of the discussion, the following points were

presented:

1. Reading aloud has a dual nature: it comprises the internal processing of

written information and the processing of language production. The act

of reading aloud seems to be a type of reading-and-speaking task.

Therefore, the use of oral reading tests is not necessarily restricted to

the assessment of reading skills. It is also possible to employ them in

assessing the mechanical skills of speaking（i.e. pronunciation and other

phonological aspects of performance）, as indicated in the previous

sections.
2. When designing and implementing oral reading tests, teachers should be

aware of what they want to accomplish with the test. One direction of

assessment involves gaining information about the quality of student

performance. Another direction entails inferring something about the

internal processes of reading （i.e. lexical, grammatical and

comprehension processing）
.

3. Procedures, methods and scoring criteria should be considered carefully

to maximise the effectiveness of oral reading tests. Valid scoring scales

should be devised in accordance with the testing purposes. A teacher

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should determine whether student performance will be marked

holistically or analytically; whether the assessment will focus on fluency,

accuracy or both; and what measures of fluency and accuracy will be

used. These should be accounted for when preparing performance

descriptors in scoring scales.

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

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（Teachers' reasoning towards the use of students reading aloud in class: Based upon

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Yonezaki, M & Ito, H.（2012）. A study on the effectiveness of oral reading activities to

improve speaking ability. , 93‒110.

1
This simplified model draws on Miyasako（2008）and Yonezaki and Ito（2012）, who

discussed and proposed models of oral reading processes in the context of Japanese

learners of English. The model of Miyasako （2008） is based on a componential

processing view of reading, which incorporates working memory and long-term memory

as processing components. Yonezaki and Ito（2012）, on the other hand, accounted for

the dual nature of oral reading（i.e. containing elements of both reading and speaking）

and discussed the process of reading aloud in terms of the model of speaking proposed

by Levelt（1989）. Yonezaki and Ito s model of oral reading omits the memory-related

components. In the present article, our primary interest is in linguistic processing in

reading aloud, not in a memory system. As with Yonezaki and Ito, therefore, our model

covers only lexical, grammatical, and phonological processing components.

2
The abbreviation stands for words per minute .
3
In the model suggested in 2.1, it is presumed that speech output is possible without

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Considerations on the Use of Oral Reading as Informal Assessment in the EFL Classroom Fujinaga

comprehension.
4
Ikeda and Takeuchi （2002） and Miyasako （2002） used teacher impressionistic

judgements in the process of assigning scores to the participants performance.

5
Depending on their purposes, reading-aloud tests can be conducted without giving

learners any preparation time. This type of oral reading demands the real-time

coordinated use of the component skills of reading aloud. Tests involving reading aloud

at first sight may place evaluative emphasis on a certain kind of spontaneity in

performance. In considering the cognitive load of reading aloud, however, the first-sight

oral reading tests should be used only with learners who have relatively high

proficiency. If such tests are to be considered for lower-proficiency learners, as

mentioned in 4.3, sufficient care should be taken to eliminate the cognitive burden that

could negatively affect their performance（e.g. the use of an easy-level test passage）
.
6
This example scoring scale was devised by the author based on Nakamura（2004）.
7
This example scoring scale was adapted from Rakinski（2003）.

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