Decoding as a Component of Reading Comprehension among Secondary Students

Abstract

Abstract. The Iowa Tests of Educational Development vocabulary test was administered once to ninth graders following standard procedures (ITED-V) and again using the alternate form in which students listened to a tape-recording of items (PROMPTED-V). Word meaning knowledge was controlled by entering the PROMPTED-V score first into a multiple regression equation to predict reading comprehension. The ITED-V score made a significant addition to the prediction equation, suggesting that the ability to decode printed words is a component of comprehension performance. Poor decoders were operationally defined as students with an ITED-V score more than two standard errors below their PROMPTED-V score. Their reading comprehension, as indicated by several measures, was significantly below that of good decoders who showed no discrepancy between their PROMPTED-V and ITED-V scores. Among poor decoders, there was a range in comprehension performance which suggests the possible influence of a third component of comprehension, such as ability to use contextual prediction.

Testing and refining the direct and inferential mediation model of reading comprehension.

“…Methodologically, Shefelbine (1990) pointed out that it is important to test the effects of word reading on vocabulary because poor word reading can confound results from written vocabulary measures. This point is supported by evidence from ninth graders in Hood and Dubert's (1983) study, which found a significant difference between oral vocabulary scores and reading vocabulary scores on parallel forms of a standardized vocabulary test. In addition, two major theories of comprehension relevant to students in fourth and higher grades-the construction-integration model (Kintsch, 1988(Kintsch, , 1998 and verbal efficiency theory (Perfetti, 1985)-include or assume direct effects of word reading on vocabulary.…”

“…Most experimental studies of reading at the high school level have investigated single variables related to reading comprehension, such as background knowledge (e.g., Stahl, Hare, Sinatra, & Gregory, 1991), inference (e.g., Van den Broek, Tzeng, Risden, Trabasso, & Basche, 2001), cognitive and metacognitive strategy use (e.g., Meyer, Brandt, & Bluth, 1980), reading vocabulary (e.g., Nagy, Diakidoy, & Anderson, 1993), and word reading (e.g., Hood & Dubert, 1983). Each of these variables has been found to separately contribute to high school students' reading comprehension, consistent with findings for both younger and older (e.g., undergraduate) students.…”

Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy

“…If the child would not understand the meaning of the word or passage when spoken, then overuse of decoding strategies can hardly be blamed if the child does not understand the written words. In short, a minimal requirement for establishing "word calling" as defined by the assumptions outlined above is the demonstration that the written material being "called" is within the listening comprehension abilities of the child (see Gough & Tunmer, 1986;Hood & Dubert, 1983).…”