What Role Does Fluency Play In Reading

What Role Does Fluency Play in Reading? by Nirra L. Poret In much of the research that’s been done, there is the indication that reading fluency is indeed an important part of comprehension. Although there are those who advocate the importance of reading fluency and those who do not, I believe that monitoring and teaching reading fluency is a best practice in education. There is much more evidence to support the idea that reading fluency is an indication of comprehension than is suggested otherwise. For the purpose of having a complete understanding, the definition of reading fluency that I believe is most widely understood is that fluency is “the ability to read quickly, accurately, and, when oral reading is considered, with expression” (as cited in Schwanenflugel, 2006). In other words, if a child is considered to be fluent it means that he or she is able to read with speed and accuracy. It makes perfect sense that if a child is able to read with fluency, then most likely he or she will not have as much trouble with comprehension as the child that struggles with reading. This is because a child is not spending time trying to decode words, but is instead able to take in a complete picture of what the chosen passage is about. These children don’t have to reread passages multiple times to gain comprehension because of not knowing words. They can read a passage and pronounce most of the words without difficulty, which frees up their brain to work on comprehending what they’ve read. On the other hand, students who lack fluency struggle with comprehension because they spend so much time trying to decode words that once they’ve moved on to a new paragraph they’ve forgotten what was in the previous one. Some have stated that fluency can become a problem if students do not understand that the point of fluency is to read with speed AND, more importantly accuracy. Students can get into the mind frame that they are taking a reading race when they are being assessed for fluency. What is the answer to this? Make sure that students understand that they are not being checked for how fast they can read, but that it is very important for them to be accurate.

Studies have shown that reading comprehension does indeed aid comprehension. Word recognition is an important part of fluency. This means that. It has been shown that only “10 to 15% of children have comprehension difficulties that are not due to poor word reading” (as cited in Walczyk and Griffith-Ross, 2007). That means that 85 to 90 percent of the time, fluency improves comprehension. It is my belief that there is no rule that applies to every child in every situation. Instead I believe that in most cases children who are fluent readers have good comprehension skills, and the research backs this up. Reading fluency is an important skill for students to possess. Most students who are fluent readers also have good comprehension skills. It is crucial that parents and teachers not overlook fluency as an important indicator of reading comprehension.

References Schwanenflugel, P., Meisinger, E., Wisenbaker, J. (2006) Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary school years. [Electronic version]. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 496-522.

Walczyk, J., Griffith- Ross, D. (2007). How important is reading skill fluency for comprehension?[Electronic version]. The Reading Teacher, 60, 560-9.