From Bibliophile to Sesquipedalian: Modeling the Role of Reading Experience in Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension

ABSTRACT

Purpose

We investigated the roles of leisure reading and word reading ability in vocabulary and reading comprehension development in 598 adolescents at ages 10, 11, and 12 (285 girls, 313 boys).

Method

Structural equation modeling was used to test whether word reading was associated with vocabulary and reading comprehension: a) directly; b) indirectly via leisure reading; or c) both.

Results

We found both direct and indirect effects of word reading on vocabulary: word reading ability directly predicted outcomes, and also predicted the amount of leisure reading, which in turn predicted vocabulary. For reading comprehension we observed direct but not indirect effects of word reading. As expected, vocabulary and reading comprehension outcomes were strongly correlated.

Conclusion

Our findings demonstrate the direct effect of word reading ability in predicting vocabulary and reading comprehension, and reveal a crucial mediating role of leisure reading in the development of vocabulary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data for this project are openly availablein the UK Data Archive: https://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/853894/

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the Nuffield Foundation [EDO/43287]; investigators Shapiro (PI), Ricketts and Burgess.