Context availability and the development of word reading skill

The influence of word meanings on lexical processing in 2nd-, 3nd-, and 5th-grade high- and low-skill readers was examined. Two experiments examined the relationship between semantic correlates of word concreteness (specifically rated imageability and context availability) and lexical processing speed and accuracy. Rated context availability was a significant predictor of lexical decision times and word reading accuracy beyond nonsemantic factors. However context-availability effects were larger in young and low-skill readers. Thus, the ability to retrieve the meanings of low-context-availability words easily is an important component in the development of skilled reading.