A Cross-Linguistic, Longitudinal Study of the Foundations of Decoding and Reading Comprehension Ability
Abstract
The authors present the results of a 2-year longitudinal study of reading development in four languages (English, n=179; Spanish, n=188; Czech, n= 135; Slovak, n=194). In all four languages, early variations in phoneme awareness/letter knowledge, RAN and oral language skills measured in reception/kindergarten class predicted variations in decoding skills at the end of Grade 1.
Reading comprehension in Grade 2 in all 4 languages was predicted by variations in decoding skill in Grade 1. For the three consistent orthographies (Spanish, Slovak and Czech), kindergarten language skills were a significant predictor of reading comprehension in Grade 2; this effect was absent in the English sample however where variations in decoding skills were a more powerful predictor of reading comprehension.
These results provide the first cross-linguistic, longitudinal evidence confirming the impact of orthographic consistency on the development of reading comprehension and provide support for the simple view of reading.