The simple view of reading in 4th grade grade students from a public school in Quito

Abstract

The simple view of reading is a model that tries to explain the reading comprehension from two variables which are decoding accuracy and oral language comprehension. There is an extensive research on this model in English readers. Although, some studies have been done in other languages with transparent orthographic systems, there are few investigations with Spanish readers. The purpose of this study has been to collect data on the applicability of the simple view of reading to Spanish reading comprehension, so 87 students of a public school from Quito were assessed with the PROLEC-R and CLP tests. The results show that join fluency or reading speed to the model may be more appropriate to explain the Spanish reading comprehension. Oral comprehension was the most related variable to the text reading comprehension; even thought decoding and reading speed made a small additional contribution. On the other hand, reading comprehension of sentences was only related in a significant way to decoding accuracy. These results show that the oral comprehension, the decoding accuracy and the decoding speed are essential in teaching and assessing reading.