Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Department of Learning and Instruction, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14222, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Oct;246:106018. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106018. Epub 2024 Jul 29.
Multisyllabic decoding poses a significant challenge to upper elementary grade readers. The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the reliability and validity of a classroom assessment, the Multisyllabic Decoding Inventory (MDI); (b) describe fourth- and fifth-grade students' decoding of multisyllabic words in relation to their semantic difficulty (age of acquisition ratings); (c) investigate which aspects of word knowledge (word recognition and decoding skill, vocabulary knowledge, and morphological knowledge) predict real word and nonword reading for multisyllabic words; and (d) determine how student word knowledge and semantic difficulty of words jointly affect the odds of accurately recognizing a multisyllabic word. We found that (a) the MDI demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity with standardized measures of word recognition and oral reading fluency; (b) students demonstrated strong performance in reading multisyllabic words and nonwords, but words with higher age of acquisition were less frequently recognized; (c) multisyllabic word reading was predicted by word recognition and decoding skill, vocabulary knowledge, and morphological knowledge, whereas multisyllabic nonword reading was predicted by decoding skills and morphological knowledge only; and (d) grade level, word recognition and decoding skill, and vocabulary at the student level increased the odds of recognizing a multisyllabic word correctly, whereas a word's age of acquisition rating decreased the odds of recognizing a multisyllabic word correctly. The results suggest that students in the upper elementary grades may benefit from multisyllabic decoding instruction that integrates decoding and vocabulary strategies.
多音节解码对小学高年级读者来说是一个重大挑战。本研究旨在：(a) 检验课堂评估工具——多音节解码量表（MDI）的信度和效度；(b) 描述四、五年级学生对多音节词的解码情况，以及这些词在语义难度（习得年龄评级）方面的特点；(c) 探究哪些词的知识方面（字词识别和解码技能、词汇知识和形态学知识）可以预测多音节词的真实单词和非单词阅读；(d) 确定学生的字词知识和单词的语义难度如何共同影响正确识别多音节词的几率。结果发现：(a) MDI 具有可接受的内部一致性信度和与字词识别和口语阅读流畅性的标准测量的同时效度；(b) 学生在阅读多音节词和非词方面表现出色，但习得年龄更高的词被识别的频率较低；(c) 多音节词的阅读能力由字词识别和解码技能、词汇知识和形态学知识预测，而多音节非词的阅读能力仅由解码技能和形态学知识预测；(d) 年级水平、字词识别和解码技能以及学生层面的词汇量增加了正确识别多音节词的几率，而单词的习得年龄评级则降低了正确识别多音节词的几率。结果表明，小学高年级学生可能受益于将解码和词汇策略相结合的多音节解码教学。
