Simple view of second language reading: A meta-analytic structural equation modeling approach

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The present study aimed to systemically summarize the structural relationships among correlated components of second language (L2) reading comprehension to investigate the extent to which the two major components – language comprehension abilities and decoding skills – could account for reading comprehension in L2 contexts in accordance with the model of Simple View of Reading.

Method

We used a meta-analytic structural equation modeling. This study included 81 samples (from 67 studies) including 10,526 participants, and the collected dataset successfully fitted the proposed model of Simple View of L2 Reading.

Results

L2 comprehension abilities and L2 decoding skills accounted for over 60% of the variation in L2 reading comprehension, with the former having a larger contribution. Considering age and L2 proficiency as moderator variables, it was revealed that L2 decoding skills played less important roles for more proficient and older learners, whereas L2 comprehension abilities maintained their importance across different ages and L2 proficiency levels. The moderators related to language differences between learners’ first language and L2 did not show significant moderating effects.

Conclusion

The study presented acceptable model fit indices for its models. Future studies can incorporate more pooled correlation coefficients and variables to investigate an effective instruction for L2 reading.

Disclosure statement

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

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2022.2087526

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A5A2A01040173).