LAUSR

Abstract According to the simple view of reading (SVR), reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and listening comprehension. Against this background, we examined the additional role of early lexical quality in the prediction of reading comprehension, either directly or indirectly via word decoding or listening comprehension. Following a longitudinal design, 566 children learning to read Dutch as L1 and 463 children learning to read Dutch as L2 in the Netherlands were tested on indicators lexical quality (LQ) in kindergarten (speech decoding, morphological knowledge and vocabulary); word decoding and listening comprehension in first grade; and then reading comprehension in second grade. The results showed L2 learners to consistently lag behind L1 readers on all measures except for word decoding. Both word decoding and listening comprehension predicted later reading comprehension for not only L1 but also L2 learners. However, later reading comprehension was also directly predicted by the children's early morphological and vocabulary knowledge, on the one hand, and indirectly by speech decoding and morphological knowledge via word decoding and indirectly by morphological and vocabulary knowledge via listening comprehension. These results show the beginning reading achievement of both L1 and L2 learners to be largely predicted by the quality of their early lexicons.