Simple View of Reading (SVR)

Language Comprehension (LC): In varied studies, LC is labeled differently, such as listening comprehension, linguistic comprehension, and comprehension. All of these phrases are defined as the potency to infer meaning from spoken words when they are part of sentences or other discussions. Language comprehension qualities, at an extremum, include “receptive vocabulary, grammatical understanding, and discourse comprehension” (Catts, Adlof, & Weismer, 2006 as cited in Farrell et al., 2019). For the simple view studies, the learner listens to a passage, read aloud by her/his mates, and then recites the passage, compounded with answering oral questions that were not addressed in the reciting.

Reading comprehension (RC):

Farrell et al. (2019) refer to a definition of RC from Gough and Tunmer (1986), they presented the formula of SVR as:

Decoding (D) x Language Comprehension (LC) = Reading Comprehension (RC)

The formula depicts that if students’ decoding skills and language comprehension abilities are known, Reading Comprehension (RC) can be evaluated.

Reading comprehension results from skills and knowledge that can be broken into two distinct and identifiable categories: decoding (D) and language comprehension (LC).

The SVR formula presented that both decoding and language comprehension can lead to strong reading comprehension. Therefore, it is required for teachers to be familiar with the SVR concept and apply it in their classrooms. More information about how to implement SVR can be found here.

The following videos provide a comprehensive understanding of SVR, Decoding, and the difference between decoding and comprehension: