Earticle

본 연구는 영어를 학습하는 초등학생들의 읽기능력에 영향을 미치는 하위 기술들을 평가하였다. 이에는 비단어와 단어 읽기, 독해 능력, 단어 및 문법 지식, 그리고 읽기이해력이 포함되었다. 한국의 여섯 공립 초등학교에서 307명의 6학년 학생이 참여하였으며 프로파일 분석을 사용하여 학생들은 각각 독특한 독해 패턴을 나타내는 다섯 가지 프로파일로 그룹화하였다. 특히 9.1%의 학생으로 이루어진 프로파일 1은 기본 해독 및 이해 능력이 부족한 것으로 나타났다. 이 연구는 성별, 학년, 도시 거주 여부, 사회경제적 지위, 부모 교육 수준, 영어 책 소유 여부, 추가 교육, 영어에 대한 관심과 같은 사회문화적 요인이 읽기능력에 영향을 미친다는 것을 밝혔으며 영어 학습에서 사회문화적 요인과 내재적 동기 부여의 중요한 역할을 시사한다.

This study comprehensively evaluated the subskills contributing to English reading ability of EFL elementary school students, including non-word and word reading, reading fluency, word and grammar knowledge, and reading comprehension. The study's participants were 307 6th graders from six public elementary schools in Korea. Using profile analysis, the study classified students into five distinct groups, each with unique patterns of reading proficiency. Profile 1, the lowest level, included 9.1% of students who lacked fundamental decoding and comprehension skills. The study's findings highlighted the influence of various sociocultural factors in an EFL context, such as gender, grade, metropolitan residence, socioeconomic status, parental education, English book ownership, supplementary education, and interest in English, on reading abilities. These findings also underscored the role of sociocultural factors and learners’ motivation in English learning.

This research investigated the effect of using synthetic phonics for teaching Indonesian young learners to read in English and Indonesian. Since English orthography is very different from Indonesian orthography, the use of synthetic phonics for teaching Indonesian young EFL learners to read in English potentially affects the development of their skills to read in Indonesian. To verify this assumption, the researchers analyzed the development of the skills for decoding English and Indonesian sounds represented by ‘a’, ‘u’, and ‘o’ within five months in K-2 students from two kindergartens. In one kindergarten, the teacher used synthetic phonics to teach English. In the other, the teacher used the MIKids program. The results of this research indicate that the synthetic phonics method might be less effective when it is used for teaching reading in English in Indonesia. In addition, it can potentially impede the development of skills for reading in Indonesian.

Despite the general understanding of the prominent role of basic reading sub-skills, such as decoding abilities and reading fluency, in the reading comprehension of younger and proficient first and second language readers, little is known about the role of these skills in older and less skilled readers in foreign language contexts. The present study was designed to investigate how decoding skills and reading fluency relate to the reading comprehension of such readers, and to identify the relative strengths between the two. Two hundred twenty two Korean high school students participated, and their performance on decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension tasks was analyzed. The results showed that both decoding skills and reading fluency were strongly correlated to reading comprehension. Moreover, between the two fundamental reading sub-skills, decoding skills outperformed reading fluency in explaining reading comprehension, making a unique contribution beyond the effects of reading fluency. These findings suggest that a basic skill like word decoding still deserves instructional attention even at the secondary schools in EFL contexts.

The present study addressed how well sixth graders are able to decode unfamiliar words and what phonics categories present the most challenges to them. A quick diagnostic measure of decoding, the Names Test, was administered individually to 171 sixth graders at a public elementary school in Seoul. The responses of 171 participants to the 70 English names were tape-recorded and analyzed by two examiners. Score analysis indicated that the participants had mastered the basic knowledge of spelling-sound correspondences necessary to decode unfamiliar words. However, a huge variation was observed in students’ decoding skills, and some students exhibited great difficulties pronouncing the names. Item analysis revealed that the participants found it easier to read the single-syllabic names with simple regular consonants and short vowels. Error analysis by phonics categories also identified the three most challenging phonics elements for the participants: consonant digraphs, long vowels, and vowel digraphs. The study concludes with a summary of the results, pedagogical implications, and directions for future research.

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between two prominent constructs of reading, decoding skills and vocabulary knowledge, and to explore whether there is a change in the relation between the two variables, depending on the general English proficiency of the students. The participants of this study were 56 Korean middle school students in grade one, who were divided into two highly distinguishable groups in terms of their English proficiency: High-achieving Students (HS) and Low-achieving Students (LS). Data on the decoding skills and vocabulary knowledge of the participants were collected. These were later evaluated by a series of correlation and regression analyses. The results of all samples put together indicated a strong correlation between decoding skills and vocabulary knowledge. The decoding skills turned out to be a significant predictor of vocabulary knowledge. However, when the results of the two groups were compared, they showed sharply dissimilar outcomes: while the outcome of LS was almost equivalent to the results of the whole sample, the decoding skills of HS were not significantly related to, nor did they make significant contribution to, the vocabulary knowledge. Implications on policy and classroom instructions are discussed in the paper.

Thirty six EFL freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were given a dictation, a listening comprehension test and a decoding test. The purpose of the study was to find out whether EFL freshmen students' spelling ability correlates with their listening comprehension and decoding skills. Data analysis showed that the typical EFL freshman student misspelled 41.5% of the words on the dictation, gave 49.5% correct responses on the listening comprehension test, and 52% correct responses on the decoding test. The median and mean scores showed that the subjects' spelling, listening and decoding achievement is low, which implied that the subjects were having spelling, listening comprehension and decoding difficulties. The students' spelling errors and correct listening comprehension and decoding responses revealed strong correlations between spelling ability, listening comprehension and decoding skills. This means that good spelling ability in EFL is related to good listening comprehension and good decoding skills. The better the listening comprehension and decoding abilities, the fewer the spelling errors. When listening comprehension and decoding skills are poor, spelling ability is also poor. Recommendations for spelling, listening and decoding instruction are given.

The present study investigated the role of decoding skills and oral vocabulary knowledge inpredicting Korean EFL students’ reading comprehension abilities. In doing so, reading volumeand frustration degree were also considered as predicting variables of reading comprehension. The participants of the study were forty-two seventh-grade Korean middle school students, whowere tested on the measures of pseudo- and real-word decoding, oral vocabulary knowledge,reading volume, degree of frustration, and reading comprehension. Data were first analyzedwith correlation analysis, and a series of hierarchical regression analyses were further conductedin order to examine the relative predictive power of decoding skills and oral vocabularyknowledge. The results indicated that all of the variables were statistically significantlycorrelated to each other and both decoding skills and oral vocabulary knowledge explainedunique variance in reading comprehension even after controlling for the effects of readingvolume and frustration. However, when compared, oral vocabulary knowledge turned out to bea more powerful predictor of reading comprehension than decoding skills. Implications ontheory, policy, and classroom instructions are discussed.

This study aimed at investigating whether elementary English textbooks facilitate the development of decoding skills that are critical to students’ progress in early L2 reading. A total of four sets of elementary English textbooks were examined for the types and elements of phonics instruction as well as for the various features of text decodability. As for the data analysis, phonics elements in the textbooks were classified into five larger categories, and early readings texts were entered into text files and analyzed for repetitions of words and ratings of high-frequency words using VocabProfile and Frequency provided by Compleat Lexical Tutor. Decoding demands of words in the reading texts were also evaluated using an eight level scale. The results indicated that phonics instruction in the textbooks was not multi-faceted in terms of instructional approaches and activities. It was also found that while explicit teaching of phonics centered upon simple spelling-sound correspondences only, the examination of grade 5 reading texts exhibited a large portion of words with complex spelling-sound combinations as well as a significant number of words occurring once despite a high percentage of high-frequency words. This suggested some attention on the part of textbook developers concerning the match between phonics instruction and decodability of early reading texts. The study concluded with some pedagogical implications and suggestions.

While much research posits that reading development in a second language (L2) is similar to that of a first language (L1), some scholars have argued that L2 reading development is more complicated by a variety of factors, one being L1-L2 orthographic distance (Akamatsu, 1999; Geva, Wade-Whooley, & Shany, 1997). Because of the orthographic distance between Korean and English, this study aimed to examine how Korean elementary students acquire reading skills in English, in particular, how their decoding skills vary depending on their grade level and how their decoding skills affect reading comprehension. For this purpose, 48 students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade?16 students of each?first read aloud three different texts that each exhibited varying degrees of decoding difficulty. Then, they answered comprehension questions about each text. The results revealed that decoding difficulty seems to affect reading comprehension irrespective of grade level. However, each grade level exhibited a unique pattern of decoding difficulty, which indicates that each grade represents a different stage of word reading development. The study findings suggest that Korean elementary students should be instructed to practice English decoding skills.

Purpose: This study examined the effect of decoding and oral language skills on the written composition of short narratives among first-grade children at the end of the academic year. Methods: A total of 55 first graders participated in the study. To qualify for the study, participants were required to score at or above 80 on a nonverbal intelligence test. All participants were administered assessment of written composition, word decoding, receptive vocabulary, semantic relation vocabulary, and sentence comprehension. Pearson correlation and multiple stepwise regression were conducted. Results: The results showed the written composition of short narratives was significantly correlated with word decoding, receptive vocabulary, semantic relation vocabulary, and sentence comprehension. In the multiple stepwise regression, word decoding and receptive vocabulary predicted a significant amount of variance in the written composition of short narratives. Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that word decoding and vocabulary knowledge have a significant effect on written composition of short narratives in the early stage of writing development. Word decoding and vocabulary should be considered for assessment and intervention for children in the early stage of writing.

배경 및 목적: 본 연구는 초등학교 읽기부진아동의 해독특성을 살펴보고자 했다. 읽기집단, 학년집단, 낱말의 의미 유무, 자소-음소 일치 여부, 자소-음소 일치형 낱말의 의미 유무, 자소-음소 불일치형 낱말의 의미 유무에 따른 해독력과 음운규칙 오류율을 살펴보았다. 방법: 초등학교 1∼6학년에 재학중인 89명의 읽기부진아동과 학년을 일치시킨 89명의 일반아동 총 178명이 참여하였고, 2음절 낱말 68개의 해독력을 평가하였다. 결과: 읽기부진아동은 일반아동보다 모든 해독과제에서 낮은 수행력을 보였다. 읽기부진아동은 초등중학년과 초등고학년 사이에 낱말해독력의 증진을 보이는 반면, 일반아동은 초등저학년에서 초등중학년간에 유의미한 차이를 보이며 해독율이 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 두 읽기집단 모두 의미낱말보다 무의미낱말에서, 자소-음소 일치형 낱말보다 자소-음소 불일치형 낱말에서, 자소-음소 일치형과 자소-음소 불일치형의 의미낱말보다 무의미낱말에서 더 어려움을 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 읽기부진아동은 의미 유무와 자소-음소 일치 여부에 더 영향을 받으며, 무의미낱말과 자소-음소 불일치형 낱말에서 더 어려움을 보였다. 음운규칙별로 살펴보았을 때 두 읽기집단 모두 비슷한 발달패턴을 보였다. 된소리와 비음화 음운규칙에서 낮은 오류율을 보이며 일찍 습득하는 것으로 나타났고, 구개음화와 설측음화 음운규칙은 고학년에서도 높은 오류율을 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 논의 및 결론: 일반아동은 초등중학년에서 해독능력이 자동화되는 반면, 읽기부진아동은 초등중학년까지 어려움을 보이다가 초등고학년에서 해독능력이 자동화되는 것으로 나타나 해독기술이 완성되는 시기가 다른 것으로 해석될 수 있다. 읽기부진아동은 무의미낱말, 자소-음소 불일치형 낱말 해독과제에서 더 어려움을 보였으며, 이는 읽기부진아동이 자소와 음소의 대응 규칙을 빠르고 적절하게 대응시키는데 어려움이 있는 것으로 볼 수 있다. 또한 읽기부진아동은 음운규칙을 적절하게 적용시키는데 어려움을 보이며, 음운규칙의 발달시기도 늦은 것으로 나타났으나, 발달양상은 유사한 것으로 나타났다.

Background and Objects: The present study was designed to explore the decoding skills of school-aged poor readers. The study examined whether decoding skills differ between children who were poor readers and typically developing children across grades in: (a) word and non-word reading (b) grapheme-phoneme correspondent words and grapheme-phoneme non-correspondent words (c) word and non-word decoding in grapheme-phoneme correspondent words (d) word and non-word decoding in grapheme-phoneme non-correspondent words and (e) words that adhere to six phonological rules. Methods: The participants were 89 poor readers and 89 aged-matched typically developing children from grades 1 to 6. Results: The results showed that (1) poor readers performed significantly lower in all decoding tasks compared to typically developing children, (2) the decoding skills of the poor readers did differ between grades 3 to 4 and grades 5 to 6, while decoding skills of the typically developing children differed between grades 1 to 2 and grades 3 to 4, (3) both reading groups performed significantly better on the word than non-word decoding tasks, the grapheme-phoneme correspondent words than grapheme-phoneme non-correspondent words tasks, grapheme-phoneme correspondent words than grapheme-phoneme correspondent non-word tasks, and grapheme-phoneme non-correspondent words than grapheme-phoneme non-correspondent non-word tasks, and (4) the children showed similar developmental patterns on the acquisition of phonological rules, demonstrating that both groups acquired the rules of tensification and nasalization early in development, while they had not fully acquired palatalization or lateralization rules and illustrated high rates of errors. Discussion & Conclusion: Poor readers tend to acquire automaticity of word decoding during grades 5 to 6, while typically developing children acquire accurate and fluent word reading skills during grades 3 to 4. Poor readers experience difficulty with decoding of nonsense words and grapheme-phoneme non-correspondent words. Even though poor readers acquired phonological rules slower than typically developing children, the reading groups did not differ qualitatively in terms of developmental patterns of acquisition of phonological rules.

배경 및 목적: 본 연구는 초등학교 저학년 일반 아동(TD), 발달성 난독을 동반하지 않은 말소리장애 아동(SSD only), 발달성 난독을동반한 말소리장애 아동(SSD+DD), 발달성 난독 아동(DD)의 낱말 해독 능력을 살펴보고자 하였다. 방법: 모든 아동은 초등학교 1-3학년으로 일반 아동 14명, 발달성 난독을 동반하지 않은 말소리장애 아동 4명, 발달성 난독을 동반한 말소리장애 아동 10명, 발달성 난독아동 13명을 대상으로 낱말 해독력을 살펴보고 자소-음소 불일치낱말에서 나타난 오류유형을 분석하였다. 해독은 의미 여부(의미낱말과 무의미낱말)와 자소-음소 일치 여부(자소-음소 일치낱말과 자소-음소 불일치낱말)로 나누어 살펴보았으며, 오류유형은 음운변동미적용, 음운변동 오적용, 음운처리 오류, 의미화 오류, DK로 분석하였다. 결과: 모든 집단에서 해독 과제 수행력에 유의한 차이가 나타났다. TD 집단은 다른 세 집단에 비해 해독 정확도가 높았다. 모든 집단에서 의미낱말이 무의미낱말보다, 자소-음소 일치낱말이 불일치낱말보다 해독 정확도가 높았다. 자소-음소 불일치낱말 해독 시 보인 오류유형을 분석한 결과, 모든 집단에서 음운변동 미적용 오류의비율이 가장 높았다. 논의 및 결론: 본 연구는 의미 여부와 자소-음소 일치 여부가 초기 읽기 학습자의 해독 능력에 기여한다는 것을 시사한다. 말소리장애와 발달성 난독을 동시에 보이는 아동이 가장 큰 어려움을 보였으며 이는 음운론적 및 해독 발달에 추가적인 어려움이 있다는 것을 보여준다. 이러한 결과는 말소리 문제와 읽기 어려움을 동시에 보이는 아동을 위한 조기 식별과 맞춤형 개입의 중요성을 강조한다.

Objectives: This study examined word decoding abilities in four groups of early elementary school children: typically developing (TD), those with speech sound disorders (SSD only), those with both SSD and developmental dyslexia (SSD+DD), and those with developmental dyslexia (DD). Methods: Participants were 14 TD children, 4 with SSD only, 10 with SSD+DD, and 13 with DD, all in grades 1 to 3. Word decoding performance was assessed based on two linguistic factors: meaning familiarity (real words vs. nonwords) and phoneme-grapheme correspondence (correspondent vs. non-correspondent). Errors were classified into five types. Results: Significant differences were observed in decoding performance across all groups, with TD children achieving higher decoding accuracy than those in the clinical groups. Across all participants, decoding accuracy was higher for real words compared to nonwords, and for grapheme-phoneme correspondent words compared to non-correspondent ones. Among the five error types analyzed, the most common error in decoding non-correspondent words was the failure to apply expected phonological changes. Conclusion: Both meaning familiarity and grapheme-phoneme correspondence independently influenced decoding performance. Children with co-occurring SSD and DD showed the most pronounced difficulties, suggesting cumulative effects of speech and reading impairments. These findings underscore the need for early identification and intervention in children with overlapping phonological and reading challenges.

This study aims to compare the word decoding skills, phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN) skills, and letter knowledge of first graders with developmental dyslexia (DD) and those who were typically developing (TD). Eighteen children with DD and eighteen TD children, matched by nonverbal intelligence and discourse ability, participated in the study. Word decoding of Korean language-based reading assessment(Pae et al., 2015) was conducted. Phoneme-grapheme correspondent words were analyzed according to whether the word has meaning, whether the syllable has a final consonant, and the position of the grapheme in the syllable. Letter knowledge asked about the names and sounds of 12 consonants and 6 vowels. The children's PA of word, syllable, body-coda, and phoneme blending was tested. Object and letter RAN was measured in seconds. The decoding difficulty of non-words was more noticeable in the DD group than in the TD one. The TD children read the syllable initial and syllable final position with 99% correctness. Children with DD read with 80% and 82% correctness, respectively. In addition, the DD group had more difficulty in decoding words with two patchims when compared with the TD one. The DD group read only 57% of words with two patchims correctly, while the TD one read 91% correctly. There were significant differences in body-coda PA, phoneme level PA, letter RAN, object RAN, and letter-sound knowledge between the two groups. This study confirms the existence of Korean developmental dyslexics, and the urgent need for the inclusion of a Korean-specific phonics approach in the education system.

본 연구는 초등 영어에서의 문자 해독 능력 및 읽기 유창성과 더불어 영어 흥미도가 독해력에 미치는 영향을 규명하고, 영어 흥미도가 문자 해독 능력 및 읽기 유창성과 독해력 간의 관계를 매개하는지 밝히고자 A 사립초등학교 6학년 아동 총 95명을 대상으로 문자 해독 능력, 독해력 및 영어 흥미도 검사를 실시하였다. 문자 해독 능력과 읽기 유창성 측정을 위해 Good과 Kaminski(2011)에 의해 고안된 읽기 능력 측정 도구인 DIBELS(Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills) Next Assessment를 사용하였다. 독해력 측정을 위해서는 한국형 렉사일 검사인 E-LQ 온라인 검사를 실시하였으며, 영어에 대한 흥미도를 파악하기 위하여 영어 학습 및 영어책에 대한 흥미도 설문을 실시하였다. 수집된 자료는 한글 SPSS 18.0 프로그램을 사용하여 Pearson 적률상관계수를 산출하였고 표준 다중 회귀분석과 3단계 매개 회귀분석 기법을 실행하였다. 본 연구 결과, 문자 해독 능력과 읽기 유창성은 독해력과 유의미한 정적 상관을 보였다. 또한 문자 해독 능력의 하위 요소인 문자 인식, 음소 인식, 단어 인식과 독해력과의 관계에서는 문자 인식을 제외한 두 요인이 독해력과 유의한 상관을 보였으며, 세 요인 모두 독해력에 유의한 영향을 미쳤으며, 영어 흥미도는 독해력과 유의미한 정적 상관을 보였다. 본 연구를 통하여 초기 읽기 단계에서 습득되는 문자 인식, 음운 인식, 단어 인식 같은 문자 해독 능력은 독해력에 큰 영향을 미치므로 훗날 능숙한 읽기 능력을 위해 습득 되어야할 매우 중요한 요소임을 제시하였다.

This study examined the effects of the decoding skills, reading fluency, and interest in English on reading comprehension. In addition, the mediating role of interest in English was examined. The reading measures were administered individually to 95 sixth grade students in Seoul, Korea to assess and analyse the students' decoding skills (Letter Naming Fluency, Phonemic Awareness, and Word Fluency), reading fluency (Oral Reading Fluency), and reading comprehension skills (E-LQ online test). The findings can be summarized as follows. First, multiple regression analysis revealed that both decoding skills and reading fluency are highly correlated with reading comprehension skills. Among the subordinates of decoding skills Word Fluency showed the highest effect on reading comprehension skills. Secondly, simple regression showed that student interest in English does effect reading comprehension skills. Thirdly, the mediating role of an interest in English between the decoding skills and reading fluency respectively with reading comprehension was not statistically significant; however, interest in English showed a strong relationship with decoding skills, reading fluency, and reading comprehension skills. This can be explained by assuming that the correlation with decoding skills, reading fluency, and reading comprehension was so strong that the mediating effect of interest in English did not show statistically. There are limitations, therefore, in generalizing the effects as the results above indicate. The study was conducted with only 95 sixth grade students in one private elementary school; therefore, pedagogical and theoretical implications and recommendations for further research are presented.

This study originated from observation of phenomena among intermediate Korean language learners during the reading process: misanalysis of grammatical morphemes, difficulty in dictionary look-ups, and unnatural chunking of text. To investigate learners’ grammatical processing during reading activities, a ‘grammar-based reading test’ was designed. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the reading performance of 57 learners revealed various patterns of grammatical decoding corresponding to their grammatical proficiency and reading achievement levels. The ‘low-grammar-low-reading’ group showed misanalysis of grammatical morphemes, low awareness of irregular verbs, and a tendency to read based on lexemes, which resulted in word-level parsing. Learners in the ‘high-grammar-high-reading’ group demonstrated higher recognition of grammatical morphemes and processed text by merging larger meaning units.

This study aims to explore the effect of a synthetic phonics program on the early reading skills of elementary school students who had different levels of early reading skills depending on their no/prior experience of learning English. For this study, twenty students were selected, divided into two groups depending on their no/prior learning experiences of English, and taught 42 phonemes by synthetic phonics program three times a week, 20 minutes per lesson for 10 weeks. To verify the effect, DIBELS tests were conducted twice and the results were as follows. First, the program has improved both groups’decoding skills; The students in no experience group improved reading skills in five categories, while the ones in experience group improved in two categories. Second, the significant differences between the two groups’skills have been reduced except for no-sense-word reading task. Third, by analyzing correlations between the five categories it turned out that LNF(naming alphabets) was less related to decoding skills, but NWF(no-sense-word reading) was a stronger predictor of success in early reading. Overall, the synthetic phonics program turned out to be effective in improving decoding skills and even the students without any prior learning of English were able to develop early reading skills.

목적: 초등학생의 읽기 구조에서 단어 해독, 읽기 유창성, 읽기 이해는 핵심적인 역할을 한다. 읽기부진 아동의 읽기 지도 효과성을 높이기 위해 읽기 구조의 세 영역에 대한 다양한 관계를 탐색할 필요가 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 초등학교 저학년 읽기부진 아동의 의미단어 해독과 읽기 유창성 사이의 읽기 이해의 매개효과를 알아보고자 하였다. 방법: 지능이 정상범주에 있는 초등학교 저학년(1~3학년) 읽기부진 아동 총 40명을 대상으로(1학년: 9명, 2학년: 18명, 3학년: 13명) 의미단어 해독, 읽기 유창성, 읽기 이해 수준을 파악하기 위해 한국어 읽기 검사(KOLRA)를 사용하여 평가하였고, 그 결과로 상관분석을 실시하였다. 그리고 읽기 유창성을 종속변인으로 Baron & Kenny의 위계적 회귀 분석을 사용하여 의미단어 해독과 읽기유창성 사이에 읽기 이해의 매개 효과를 측정한 후 Sobel Test를 실시하여 매개효과의 유의성을 검증했다. 결과: 의미단어 해독, 읽기 유창성, 읽기 이해 간에 유의미한 상관관계가 나타났고, 의미단어 해독이 읽기 유창성에 유의미한 영향을 주었으며, 이 관계에서 읽기 이해는 부분매개 효과를 보였다. 결론: 의미단어 해독과 읽기 유창성의 관계에서 읽기 이해가 매개 역할을 할 때, 의미단어 해독과 읽기 유창성의 관계에서 보다 영향력이 높은 것으로 나타났다. 그러므로 읽기 이해는 읽기 유창성과 일 방향의 관계가 아닌 양 방향 관계를 가지기 때문에 읽기 유창성을 향상시키기 위해서는 해독 능력과 어휘지식에 대한 지도뿐만 아니라 읽기 이해 훈련을 병행하는 것이 도움이 될 것이다.

Purpose: Word decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension play an important role in elementary school children’s reading structure. To increase the efficiency of reading instruction for children with poor reading skills, it is necessary to examine relationships among three components of the reading structure. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of reading comprehension between word decoding and reading fluency among children with poor reading skills in the lower grades of elementary school. Methods: The participants in this study included 40 students in the lower grades of elementary school (first grade: 9, second grade: 18, third grade: 13) with poor reading skills who are of normal intelligence. To identify word decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension ability, the Korean Language-based Reading Assessment (KOLRA) was used, and correlation analysis was conducted among the assessment’s results. To measure the mediating effect, regression analysis was conducted using Barron & Kenny, and the significance of the mediating effect was verified using a Sobel test. Results: A significant correlation was found among word decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Moreover, word decoding significantly predicted reading fluency, and the partial mediating effect of reading comprehension was confirmed in this relationship. Conclusions: The results suggest that when reading comprehension plays a mediating role between word decoding and reading fluency, its impact on reading fluency is higher than the influence of word decoding. Thus, since there is a reciprocal relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension, the need for reading comprehension intervention as well as word decoding, and vocabulary are emphasized to enhance reading fluency.