LONGITUDINAL DATA ON THE RELATIONS OF WORD-READING STRATEGIES TO COMPREHENSION, READING TIME, AND PHONEMIC AWARENESS

THE AUTHORS performed a one-year follow-up testing of second- and third-grade children on word-reading lists, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, and reading time. The children had been classified in the initial testing on their ability to read irregularly spelled words and nonwords, and four groups had been identified-children high on both, children low on both, a group with average sight word stocks but poor decoding skills (called "Chinese" readers), and a group with adequate decoding ability but below average on irregular words (called "Phoenicians"). A year later, the good readers remained above average on most measures, and the poor readers continued to perform at low levels. The Chinese readers showed a progressive deterioration in word reading from second to third grade, while the Phoenicians attained higher levels on those measures. The changes in reading comprehension noted in the original cross-sectional study were also observed in the longitudinal data. Grade 4 data confirmed the picture of deteriorating prospects for children identified as Chinese readers.