An Additive Simple View of Reading Describesthe Performance of Good and Poor Readersin Higher Education

Abstract

According to Gough and Tunmer (1986), in a ‘Simple View of Reading’ (SVR), Reading comprehension (RC) = Decoding (D) x Linguistic Comprehension (C).To further evaluate this model, this paper describes an exploratory study of the performance of 60 university students, the majority of whom received academic accommodations at university to compensate for significant reading delays. Results showed that both D and C predicted reading comprehension well. An additive model (D + C) fitted the data no better than a product model (D x C). Similar results were obtained when cumulative grade point average rather than reading comprehension was used as the dependent variable. D but not RC was correlated with phonological awareness and (less reliably) with rapid naming ability. Implications of these findings for the Simple View of Reading and for the support of university students with reading problems are considered.