Direct and indirect contributions of executive function to word decoding and reading comprehension in kindergarten

Abstract

Extant research is increasingly recognizing the contribution of executive function (EF) to reading comprehension alongside established predictors like word decoding and oral language. The nature of the association between EF and reading comprehension is commonly investigated in older children and in those with reading impairments. However, less is known about this relationship in emerging readers in kindergarten, where word decoding and reading comprehension are highly intertwined. Moreover, a better understanding of the mechanisms by which EF influences reading comprehension is needed. The present study investigated direct contributions of EF to reading comprehension, as well as indirect contributions via word decoding in 97 kindergarteners. Results indicated that there was a significant indirect effect of EF on reading comprehension, with word decoding mediating this association. The direct contribution of EF to reading comprehension was not significant. Implications for reading instruction and intervention for early readers are discussed. 1.1. Models of reading comprehension Reading comprehension involves extracting meaning from a written text. This process is incredibly complex, and relies upon the successful integration of several components. Reflecting this inherent complexity, several theories and models of reading comprehension have been proposed. The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover &

Language skills, and not executive functions, predict the development of reading comprehension of early readers: evidence from an orthographically transparent language

“…In this study the contribution of the fluent decoding skills to reading comprehension was much stronger than the effects of oral language skills. These findings suggest that the effects of the executive functions on reading comprehension could be stronger via decoding skills (Haft et al, 2019;Spencer et al, 2019) but they also support our findings by suggesting that these effects decrease as the students become better decoders.…”

“…Consistent with other studies from transparent orthographies (Tobia & Bonifacci, 2015;Torppa et al, 2016), and in contrast to other studies from opaque orthographies that sampled students from this age group (e.g., Kim, 2017) we expected oral language skills to have stronger effects and fluent decoding skills to have weaker effects on the development of reading comprehension. Furthermore, since we expected our students to have strong fluent decoding skills by 2nd grade and executive functions were found to affect students' performance in reading comprehension indirectly mostly via decoding skills (Haft et al, 2019;Spencer et al, 2019), we expected that the executive functions would not have a strong direct effect on reading comprehension.…”

“…It likely takes significant cognitive effort for students reading in English to distinguish between the 44 phonemes and the 123 phonographs that must be understood in order to become successful readers (Eide, 2012). Such additional cognitive effort could place constrains on the development of reading comprehension via decoding skills among readers of English (Haft et al, 2019); therefore, the role of executive functions could be more important for students learning to read in English than for students learning to read in Spanish, Italian or Finnish. To the best of our knowledge, no study has tested explicitly the potential role of executive functions on early reading comprehension beyond the effects of fluent decoding and oral language skills in a language with transparent orthography.…”

EFL learners’ phonemic awareness: A correlation between English phoneme identification skill toward word processing

“…In other words, it is the ability to segment words. Ehri (2005) as cited in (Haft et al, 2019) states that word decoding refers to simple mapping printed words to sound, but in reality, it involves numbers of lexical and sublexical processes including phonological and orthographic processes. On the other hand, Encoding is a process of using the decoded information to create new words.…”

The role of executive function in reading comprehension among beginning readers

“…In the past two decades, studies revealed that executive function (EF) has consistently associated with reading comprehension and significantly accounted for the individual differences in reading performance beyond the contribution of decoding skills (e.g., Butterfuss & Kendeou, 2018; Cantin, Gnaedinger, Gallaway, Hesson‐Mclnnis, & Hund, 2016; Kieffer, Vukovic, & Berry, 2013; Nouwens, Groen, & Verhoeven, 2016). Despite evidence suggesting the significance of EF to reading (e.g., Arrington, Kulesz, Francis, Fletcher, & Barnes, 2014; Hung & Loh, in press; Kieffer et al, 2013), many questions still await to be answered (see the review of Butterfuss & Kendeou, 2018), in particular the lack of clarity on the mechanism by which EF contributes to reading comprehension (Cirino et al, 2019; Haft et al, 2019; Kim, 2017; Nouwens, Groen, Kleemans, & Verhoeven, in press). Recently, Kim (2020) proposed a hypothetical model (Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Reading (DIER)) to illustrate how EF contributes to reading comprehension.…”