The primary purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence for the assumption that if the essential subskills of word attack are mastered, then functional word attack ability will result. To obtain such evidence, the study was designed to test the functional word attack ability of 140 elementary school students who had been taught the subskills of word attack according to an objective-based, skill-oriented approach outlined in the Wisconsin Design of Reading Skill Development: Word Attack Element. Word lists were developed to test the subjects' ability to decode synthetic words which tested specific phonic and structural subskills of word attack, phonically and structurally regular words, and phonically and structurally irregular words. The results of the study showed that the subjects were able to decode the synthetic words at the suggested 80 percent mastery level. Not all of the subjects were able to decode all of the phonically and structurally regular words at an 80 percent mastery level. However, they did attain higher scores on the tests of regular words than they did on the tests of irregular words. (MKM)