The Role of Word Decoding Speed and Accuracy on Reading Comprehension in a Highly Transparent and Morphologically Complex Orthography

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the impact of word decoding speed and accuracy on reading comprehension in Turkish, which is characterized by a highly transparent and morphologically complex orthographic system. The study involved 160 students, half of whom were identified as poor readers, while the other half were classified as good readers. These participants were selected from the second and fourth grades of public elementary schools. The assessment process involved evaluating participants' isolated word decoding skills using a task that measured their ability to decode both real words and pseudowords. Additionally, reading fluency and comprehension were measured using grade-level appropriate reading texts. The analysis included a series of MANOVAs as well as a mediation model (Model 7) employing Haye's PROCESS macro for SPSS. The findings indicated that the poor readers' limited reading comprehension abilities were primarily attributed to their overall deficiency in word decoding fluency, with a particular emphasis on their inadequate phonological decoding skills. These results are significant as they shed light on the challenges that children with reading comprehension difficulties may face in transparent orthographic systems. The attainment of proficient reading comprehension in such languages appears to be influenced by the specific aspects of word decoding fluency.