Which term is used when a person reads nonsense words aloud to test decoding skills?

• A. Sight word reading
• B. Non-word reading
• C. Reading speed
• D. Reading comprehension

Answer: (B)

Decoding skills involve translating letter patterns into sounds to read unfamiliar words. Reading nonsense words aloud isolates this ability because the reader can’t rely on memory of real words; they must apply phoneme-grapheme knowledge and blending to pronounce the made-up form. This is why the term used is non-word reading (also known as pseudoword reading). It directly assesses how well someone maps sounds to letters and blends them, independent of vocabulary.

By contrast, sight word reading relies on recognizing familiar words by sight, not decoding; reading speed looks at how quickly someone reads, which may involve fluency but not decoding accuracy; and reading comprehension measures understanding of text after decoding, not the decoding process itself.