영어 읽기 능력에 관한 초등학교 6학년 학생들의 잠재 프로파일 분석

A latent profile analysis on English reading skills of Korean 6th graders in an elementary school

This study examined how students can be classified into different homogeneous groups by analyzing their reading sub-skills and how each group shows different characteristics based on reading sub-skills. Participants were 6th graders from an elementary school in Incheon. Non-word reading, word reading, passage reading and vocabulary, and syntactic knowledge tests were used to measure and analyze their reading profiles. Data analysis comprised of descriptive statistics and latent profile analysis. The results confirmed that the participants were divided into four homogeneous groups, indicating that they were a heterogeneous group rather than a homogeneous group. The four distinct groups showed level differences in all variables except non-word reading. The characteristics of these disparate groups of students require customized interventions according to differently characterized teaching methods. This study suggests that although phonics skills through non-word reading are not very discriminative for 6th graders’ reading comprehension in the elementary school, all students need more phonics instructions. This study proposes that Korean elementary school students should be provided with opportunities to learn decoding skills through encountering more diverse English reading materials.