Vocabulary and reading comprehension: what are the links in 7‐ to 10 year‐old children?

Abstract

The aims of the present study are: (1) to examine the contribution that vocabulary makes to reading comprehension in the Simple View of Reading model in French‐speaking children aged from 7 to 10 years based on the use of an index of efficiency (i.e., speed‐accuracy index); and (2) to investigate the extent to which the contribution of vocabulary to reading comprehension might change according to children's school grade level. Measures of vocabulary depth, word reading (i.e., three levels of word representations, namely orthography, phonology, semantics), listening, and reading comprehension were collected using computer‐based assessments in children from Grades 2 to 5 (N = 237). We examined the contribution of vocabulary in two contrasted groups: a younger group consisting of children from Grades 2–3 and an older group with children from Grades 4–5. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that vocabulary is a factor separate from word reading, listening and reading comprehension. Moreover, the results from a structural equation modeling analysis showed that word reading and listening comprehension fully mediated the relation between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Consequently, vocabulary had an indirect effect via word reading on reading comprehension in both groups. Finally, word reading had a greater effect on reading comprehension than listening comprehension in both groups. The results suggest that word reading plays a central role in reading comprehension and is underpinned by the influence of vocabulary. We discuss the results in the light of the lexical quality hypotheses taken together with reading comprehension.