The Effects Of Decoding And Listening Comprehension On Reading Comprehension Among Senior High School Students

The aim of this study is to explore the effects of decoding and listening comprehension on reading comprehension among senior high school students in Mainland China within the theoretical framework of the Simple View of Reading.The research focuses on three questions:1) How do different kinds of decoding skills and listening comprehension correlate with reading comprehension? 2) What differences exist between high-level and low-level readers in the achievement of decoding and listening comprehension? 3) What contributions do decoding skills and listening comprehension make to reading comprehension?Cluster sampling method was adopted in this research. Altogether 82 senior high school students of grade 2 from Dezhou, Shandong Province took part in this study. The instruments included decoding ability test (including real word reading test, pseudo-word reading test, and morphological awareness test), listening comprehension test and reading comprehension test. Among these tests, real word reading test and pseudo-word reading test were administrated individually while others were administrated in group.SPSS 18.0 was used to analyze the collected data. The results of correlation analysis indicated that there were significant correlations between decoding and reading comprehension and between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. Independent samples t-test revealed that there existed significant difference between high-level and low-level readers in both decoding skills and listening comprehension.In hierarchical multiple regression analysis, decoding and listening comprehension were found to predict reading comprehension independently after sex was controlled. Among decoding abilities, real word reading and derivational morphological awareness could make independent contributions to reading comprehension.This study verifies the Simple View of Reading in part and enriches the research in the context of EFL. The important roles of decoding and listening comprehension in reading comprehension revealed in this study could also provide implications for English teaching and learning. The training of decoding and listening comprehension may help improve the learners’ reading comprehension.