DECODING STRATEGIES AS PREDICTORS OF READING SKILL - A FOLLOW-ON STUDY

A follow-on study was conducted on first-and third-grade children who were tested on the Word Identification subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. Errors were phonetically transcribed and proportions of total errors were assigned to one of four strategy types based upon t he type of decoding analysis: whole word, part word, and either probab le (legal) or improbable (illegal) phonetic decoding. The type of stra tegy employed was highly correlated with concurrent reading test score s and predicted 30 to 37% of the variance in ward recognition 19 month s later Use of phonetic decoding was a strong positive predictor and w hole word decoding a negative predictor at both first and third grade. Part word decoding became a negative predictor at third grade. Nearly all children used more than one strategy and there was a developmenta l trend to shift to a phonetic strategy. But this shift was not inevit able and had nor occurred for 31% of the children at the close of the study. Children who stayed with the most inefficient strategies had si gnificantly higher vocabulary scores and equivalent phonemic processin g ability when compared to readers with more efficient decoding strate gies.