Auding and Reading - A Development Model

Table 5

Rate of Silent Reading for Four Age Groups^a
Age(years)	N	Passage	Grade Level of Materials^b	Reading Rate at Percentile^c
Age(years)	N	Passage	Grade Level of Materials^b	25	50 Median	75
9	2195	1	4-8	86	117	158
		2	7-12	88	123	169
13	2196	1	5	133	173	217
		2	10-11	128	165	212
17	2220	1	10	160	195	247
		2	College	157	195	246
26-35	1239	1	10	145	188	231
		2	College	145	186	236
Data are from National Assessment of Educational Progress Report 02-R-09: Reading Rate and Comprehension, 1970-71 Assessment. December 1972. Grade levels are readability scores determined by 3 to 4 different readability formulas. Data presented are ranges. Reading rates are words per minute (wpm).

It appears that college students typically read silently at rates comparable to those at which auding can be performed, without serious decrements in comprehension. In turn, both auding and reading rates of college students seem to correspond to the upper rates at which oral reading can be produced. This suggests a common factor underlying all three processes, an idea we shall return to later in this section.

The evidence reviewed regarding the comparability of auding and reading rates does not include direct comparisons of auding and reading. There are, so far as we can determine, only a handful of studies that make such a direct comparison. In an early study of the effects of rate of presentation of messages on auding and reading comprehension, Goldstein (1940) presented spoken messages to adults at 100, 137, 174, 211, 248, 285, and 322 wpm. He found that comprehension scores, expressed in school grade equivalents, decreased as 11.1, 10.8, 10.6, 10.5, 9.4, 9.3, and 8.7, respectively. Thus, increasing the rate of presentation decreased the amount of information available to be used in answering the comprehension questions. The largest drop occurred between 211 and 248 wpm, with a decrease from 10.5 to 9.4-a 1.1 grade-level drop.