Reading fluency in a group of Spanish speaking children.

DE MIER, M. VANESA

Rio de Janeiro

Congreso; IPC in Rio: 3rd ANPOLL Intl Psycholinguistics Congress Domain Specificity in Language Acquisition and Processing.; 2015

Universidad Federal y Universidad Católica de Rio de Janeiro.

Fluent oral reading has been traditionally measured by the ability to read isolated words with speed and accuracy because rapid and automatic word decoding releases limited working memory resources that become available for comprehension (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Posner & Snyder, 1975; Speece & Ritchey, 2005). However, even if automatic word recognition is necessary, it is not sufficient to construct a mental model of a text. Recent studies suggest that fluency could be considered as a general indicator of the efficiency of the processes (Fuchs et al., 2001) and have proposed words in context as a more accurate measure (Eason et al., 2013; Klauda & Guthrie, 2008). In fact, reading is a complex process that implies different components such as decoding, lexical access, extraction of syntactic and semantic information from sentences, inferencing (Bashir & Hook, 2009; Perfetti & Stafura, 2014; Pikulski & Chard, 2005).The current study assessed the relationship between variables in a group (N=317) of Argentinian beginning readers (2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade). A theoretical model about fluency in an orthographically consistent language (Spanish) was developed (Figure 1) and structural equation analytical methods were employed to evaluate within- and cross-grade relations among theoretically relevant variables: RAN, letter naming, word decoding, pseudoword reading, working memory, vocabulary, and comprehension. Results of structural equation modeling analyses suggested the hypothesized model adequately fit the data. The model explained 41%, 29%, 78%, 71%, 39%, and 41% of the variance in comprehension, vocabulary, words in text, isolated word reading, letter naming, and pseudoword reading, respectively. Working memory, vocabulary and words in context were significantly related with comprehension while isolated word decoding showed a negative coefficient. Vocabulary was related with both comprehension and words in text outcomes. RAN was related significantly with pseudoword reading and letter knowledge, but did not predict isolated word reading and words in text. Furthermore, pseudoword reading was related with isolated word recognition and words in text. Mediation tests indicated that pseudoword reading mediated relationships between RAN and both, isolated words reading and words in text. Results are discussed in relation to the relevance of phonological processing in Spanish and interrelation of processes while reading words in context.