The Simple View of Reading

The Simple View of Reading

Gough and Tunmer (1986) developed the Simple View of Reading.  This graphic is a visual representation of their research.  To achieve reading comprehension, a student must have strong word recognition (decoding) skills and strong language comprehension skills.  A deficit in either factor will lead to a reduction in reading comprehension.  The equation is multiplicative, not additive.  For example if a person has excellent decoding (1.00), but very little language comprehension (.30), they will not achieve competent reading comprehension, as 1.00 x .30 = .30  In this way, no amount of strength in one set of skills can make up for a weakness in the other.  Students need to be strong in both Word Recognition and Language Comprehension to be successful in reading.