Abstract
This study investigated the significance of the effects of word-recognition speed, accuracy, and automaticity on three different English-reading proficiency groups: two groups of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and one group of native English speakers. In addition, whether the effects of word-recognition speed, accuracy, and automaticity varied according to word frequency levels was examined. Automaticity of word recognition was measured in terms of the coefficient of variation of reaction times (CV_<RT>), proposed by Segalowitz and Segalowitz (1993). Overall results showed that word-recognition accuracy and speed had significant effects in differentiating among the three reading proficiency groups, while moderate effects were observed for word-recognition automaticity on them. In other words, the more proficient a person becomes in reading, the more quickly, accurately, and automatically he or she can recognize words. Interestingly, the effects of word-recognition accuracy and speed grew larger when word frequency decreased, while such changes were not observed for word-recognition automaticity. These results suggest that learners need to recognize words with a wider range of frequency--not only accurately but also rapidly and automatically.
