An error correction decoding method and apparatus are provided. The error correction decoding method involves (a) outputting data corresponding to input codewords by referring to a lookup table, which stores data of a predetermined size and corresponding codewords; (b) outputting predetermined error values if there are no matches for the input codewords in the lookup table; (c) forming an error correction block by arraying the data output in step (a) or the error values output in step (b); and (d) performing an error correction decoding process, without allowing codes constituting the error correction block to exchange erasure information with one another, by referring to locations of the error values in the error correction block and the number of errors in the error correction block.