The Relationships Between Short-Term Memory, Word Decoding Skills and Language Competencies in Norwegian Fourth-Graders

Abstract

84 Norwegian 9-10 year old children were tested in word decoding skills, short-term memory and language competence (semantics and grammar). Previous studies show mostly strong relationships between each of the skills, and among the language competencies. The aim was to discover if this also could be found in Norwegian children. The results indicated that language competence is related to word decoding skills and short-term memory, in support of previous studies. However, only a weak relation was found between word decoding skills and short-term memory, in spite of previous research findings of an association between short-term memory and reading skills. This suggests that short-term memory is less important for decoding skills than for other aspects of reading. In addition, morphological awareness showed weak connections to discourse oriented syntactic skills and to word decoding skills, but this may be due to the nature of the tasks.