Reading Fluency

This study investigated the effects of a six-month course in speed reading on three areas of reading proficiency development: (1) general reading comprehension; (2) knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary; and (3) reading-rate and accuracy. The participants (N = 105) were Japanese students studying English as a foreign language in Grade 10 of a Japanese private senior high school, randomly assigned to an experimental group (n =51), which received the speed reading treatment, and a control group (n =54), which received supplementary activities focused on high-frequency vocabulary development. The findings indicated that both the experimental and control groups made significant improvements in general reading comprehension. However, there was no significant difference between the experimental group (M = 14.27, SD = 4.01) and control group M = 14.31, SD = 4.07; t (103) = -.051, p= .959. Both the experimental group (M = 1.29, SD = 2.52) and control group (M = 1.35, SD = 2.49) increased t...

This article covers instruction in teaching intermediate grade elementary children how to be proficient in applying the English language arts, i.e., reading, writing, speaking, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension INFUSED into the content subject areas of science, social studies, math, language arts, and literature.

In het onderwijs wordt aangenomen dat hardop en stillezen dezelfde processen zijn. In dit onderzoek wordt gekeken naar het verschil tussen hardop en stillezen wat betreft leessnelheid en tekstbegrip bij 90 kinderen uit groep 4. Ook wordt de invloed van de cognitieve vaardigheden fonologisch bewustzijn, benoemsnelheid en visuele aandachtsspanne op de verschillende leesmodi onderzocht. De participanten lazen stil sneller, maar begrepen de tekst beter hardop. De cognitieve vaardigheden correleerden met hardop en stillezen wat betreft leessnelheid, maar hingen in beide leesmodi niet samen met tekstbegrip. Hoewel hardop en stillezen samenhangen, onderstrepen deze bevindingen dat het verschillende leesmodi zijn.

The current study was conducted to measure the effectiveness of a repeated reading intervention for secondary level students identified with a specific learning disability. Although previous research suggests that repeated reading is an effective intervention to build oral reading fluency for students identified with disabilities, there is little research on its effectiveness with high school students who have been identified with a specific learning disability. This study used a multiple-probe across students design to measure the effectiveness of repeated reading as a strategy to improve oral reading fluency with high school students identified with a specific learning disability. A visual analysis of data suggested a functional relationship was demonstrated with all participating students. While there were differences in performance, the visual analysis indicated repeated reading had a positive affect on oral reading fluency with unpracticed passages for all three students.

The purpose o f this research was to examine the effectiveness o f the reading fluency program L e a d Naturally®. T his program employs passage reading and comprehension questions. These are graded a t various instructional levels (kg. to adult). The program employs several practice procedures such as passage reading along with a pre-recorded audiotape, reading the passage independently, a n d finally reading the same passage again to an adult. The participants were two, third graders (one boy and one girl), a n d a fo u rth grade boy. D a ta were collected on the correct words read orally p e r minute across various lessons. These data were gathered in the elementary school's resource room and taken daily. The effectiveness o f the L e a d N a tu ra lly ® program was evaluated with a multiple-baseline design. O u r overall outcomes indicated that there was little change in correct words read per minute without practicing the passage (a cold read) a n d a large increase in correct words read after practice (a hot read). The results suggest th a t the procedure o f repeated practice with an audiotape a n d practicing independently are effective procedures f o r increasing words read p e r minute. While the present outcomes were positive, further research is warranted regarding the efficacy of the Lead Naturally ® in the schools.

This chapter describes:
(1) The importance of attending to the words in texts that students read as part of repeated and guided reading fluency instruction.
(2) A fluency curriculum that consists of high-frequency words and words with consistent rimes (i.e. vowel and consonant patterns) that appear frequently in texts for young children.
(3) Evidence that the fluency levels of beginning and struggling readers are supported when repeated and guided reading occurs with texts that follow the fluency curriculum.
(4) Sources for texts that give students experiences with the fluency curriculum.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a significant percent of 4th grade students read below the basic level. In one elementary school students participated in additional reading instruction as intervention for students scoring basic and below basic on the state standardized test. The purpose of this ex post facto nonexperimental quantitative study was to determine the effectiveness of direct instruction versus fluency (repeated reading) instruction on the reading achievement of 4th grade
students. This study is based on the theory of automatic information processing in reading and the theory of prosody. The overarching research question for this study examined if the reading achievement scores of 4th grade students improved with fluency instruction or direct instruction. Two separate years of archived data from the 2011-2012 (Group A) and 2012-2013 (Group B) school years were used to examine student reading
levels using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) test. Sample size for both Group A and Group B equaled 76 participants respectively. Use of an independent samples t test indicated there was a significant mean difference of reading achievement scores between student groups as measured by the DRA. Students who received fluency instruction achieved greater comprehension scores than students who did not receive fluency instruction. Findings from this study give indication of improvement in reading achievement with the implementation of fluency instruction. Implications for social change include changing the behavior, perceptions, and customs of teachers towards students in and urban public school and district through professional development and professional learning community sessions.

Reading fluency is one of the major goals of many reading classes, especially with intermediate or high-intermediate learners of language. As beginners, foreign language learners tend to read word by word, and they may continue to use this strategy as they progress in their learning, which is not helpful when they reach higher levels in their language programs. Therefore, it is very important to introduce fluency-based activities as early as possible. To promote reading fluency, many reading fluency-building activities, such as read aloud, extensive reading, paced-reading, and timed-reading, can be used in the classrooms (Grabe & Stoller, 2011). Using such exercises in classroom settings raises many issues related to the actual implementation. In this short article, the focus is on using timed reading to improve reading fluency. Drawing on information from the literature and reflecting on my personal experience, I present suggested steps for implementing timed reading and discuss issues related to such implementation.

Objective fluency judgment has always been a formidable task in language testing. Nonetheless, temporal fluency is the type of fluency which can be measured and quantified. Given that, temporal fluency is also known as temporal measures of fluency (Luoma, 2004). Furthermore, it has aroused considerable interest in analyzing speech of language learners in terms of quantitative measures (Kormos & Denes, 2004; Freed, 1995; Riggenbach, 1991; Lennon, 1990). They suggested that certain measures of fluency can more objectively specify fluency level and that perceptual understanding of fluency to a high extent correlate with these measures. Following these studies, the present study was an endeavor to relate quantitative measures of fluency and assessment of fluency in oral speech of L2 learners. To do so 30 advanced EFL learners whose speaking score on TOEFL iBT scale was between 19 to 22, i.e. B2 on CEFR scale, were selected. Then, they were given a picture strip as the elicitation task and asked to make up a story based on that. Their voice was recorded, transcribed and further analyzed by voice analysis software called PRAAT to calculate seven measures of fluency. Meanwhile, two trained listeners were required to rate the recordings, scoring them from 1 to 9. Finally, the relationship between these variables was calculated. The results showed that judge listeners' ratings of fluency were highly correlated with speech rate, phonation time ratio, and mean length of runs. Moreover, among the measures of temporal fluency speech rate proved significantly correlated with articulation rate, phonation time ratio, and mean length of runs.

Published in the Children’s Research Digest: Growing up in the Digital Environment, January 2020. The current study examines the impact of a three-week digital precision teaching (PT) intervention programme through the Irish language on a group of primary school pupils’ Irish reading fluency. The study employed a mixed factorial experimental design. Thirty-six Irish primary school pupils who were learning Irish as a second language were recruited for this study. Participants were divided evenly into two groups: experimental and control (N = 18). Participants completed tests of isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency before and after the PT intervention programme. The experimental group was exposed to the PT programme, which focused on isolated Irish vocabulary, while the control group experienced typical teaching of Irish. The results of a one-way multivariate analysis of variance and a series of dependent samples t-tests revealed that in contrast to the control group, the experimental group exhibited a significant increase in both isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency following the intervention. This study emphasises the potential value of utilising PT to aid second language learning, not only for increasing isolated sight word reading fluency, but also for enhancing contextualised reading fluency. Keywords: precision teaching; Irish; reading fluency; second language acquisition

Despite recent findings that show fluency deficits in developmental readers, the field of developmental reading remains remiss in fluency instruction. This article provides a summary intended to increase college reading teachers' understanding of reading fluency and fluency instruction. In addition, included are the step-by-step procedures of fluency interventions (Repeated Readings and Wide Reading) conducted by the author with developmental readers.

This study investigated whether two groups of 6-year-old beginning readers taught to read by a phonics and by a “book experience” non-phonics approach would differ in reading
comprehension as well as the processes of word recognition. The two groups were matched for word recognition but despite this, the phonics taught children had higher reading comprehension.
Phonics taught children produced more contextually appropriate errors, and in both single word and text reading made more spoken attempts at reading unknown words. The non-phonics taught children had much faster reading reaction times to familiar words but they scored less in phoneme segmentation and nonword reading tasks. Compared with the nonphonics group, the phonics group spent more time in attempts at identifying unknown words
and this included using contextual information, which apparently resulted in more rehearsal of the meaning of the story text and hence better reading comprehension performance.

Tejuelo, nº 28 (2018), págs. 11-42. Comprender el proceso lector en segundas lenguas… 11 | P á g i n a I S S N : 1 9 8 8-8 4 3 0 Comprender el proceso lector en segundas lenguas: cognición y afectividad Understanding the reading process in a second language: cognition and affect

Reading is an important skill for any language learner. In reading, fluency is its vital component of developing competency. However, literature has mixed inclination whether to treat fluency or prosody as primary indicator of such competency. This paper attempts to provide a review of related literature in this regard. Amidst varying views concerning the causality of fluency and prosody, there seems to be a particular causality in play, and, thus, outlines the role of prosody as a component of reading fluency in general. More practically, it is reasonable to suggest that having a hierarchical view of prosody within fluency can effectively facilitate reading competency.

A number of scholars in applied linguistics and reading proficiency have regularly underlined the significance of reading as a prerequisite to academic achievement and success. On that account, numerous studies have attempted to investigate a best course of action into presenting a new way of teaching reading proficiency. The present contribution attempts to investigate the probable effect of employing Harmer's Engage, Study and activate (ESA) elements involved in teaching of tasks in developing reading comprehension of EFL learners. For this reason, two intact groups of each containing 15 Iranian EFL learners from Chabahar Maritime University were enrolled. Prior to the study, before the actual classes were inducted, participants were administered an FCE reading pre-test to ensure both groups equivalence and homogeneity. Consequently, the control group was instructed based on the principles of Grammar-translation method (GTM) and the experimental group was instructed through implementation of ESA elements involved in teaching of reading tasks. Eventually, at the end of the treatment period, a post-test of FCE reading comprehension was administered to investigate their performance in reading comprehension. The results of the statistical analyses, i.e. independent sample t-test showed that the experimental group has significantly outperformed the control group; the learners also showed a positive overall tendency towards the teaching method based on ESA elements .It is expected that the pedagogical implication of the study would make considerable contribution to the works of EFL teachers, Researchers, policy makers and curriculum designers.

Περίληψη Η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να μελετήσει το ρυθμό ανάγνωσης και το επίπεδο ανα-γνωστικής ευχέρειας μαθητών της Α΄ και Β΄ τάξης του Δημοτικού. Στην έρευνα συμ-μετείχαν 69 μαθητές της πρώτης και δευτέρας τάξης του δημοτικού, οι οποίοι αξιολο-γήθηκαν στην ανάγνωση κειμένου. Εξετάσθηκαν η συνολική διάρκεια της ανάγνωσης, ο χρόνος εκφοράς, οι αναγνωστικές παύσεις, ο ρυθμός ανάγνωσης και η προσωδία. Για τη συλλογή και ανάλυση των δεδομένων χρησιμοποιήθηκε η ψηφιακή πλατφόρμα Cognitive Workshop καθώς και το λογισμικό Praat για την ψηφιακή ανάλυση της ανά-γνωσης. Τα αποτελέσματα δείχνουν σημαντικές διαφορές μεταξύ των ομάδων σε όλες τις μεταβλητές της αναγνωστικής αξιολόγησης και την προσωδία, αλλά όχι στη συχνό-τητα και τον τύπο των αναγνωστικών λαθών. Λέξεις-Κλειδιά: Ρυθμός ανάγνωσης, αναγνωστική ευχέρεια, προσωδία Εισαγωγή Η ανάπτυξη των δεξιοτήτων του γραπτού λόγου είναι εξαιρετικής σημασίας για τον σύγχρονο άνθρωπο, αφού αποτελεί το κύριο μέσο μετάδοσης μηνυμάτων αλλά και βα-σικό συστατικό της ακαδημαϊκής επιτυχίας (Zumeta, Compton, & Fuchs, 2012). Η α-πόκτηση βασικών αναγνωστικών δεξιοτήτων όχι μόνο επεκτείνει τις γνώσεις μας, αλλά καθορίζει σε μεγάλο βαθμό τον τρόπο σκέψης, επιδρά στην ανάπτυξη της φαντασίας, έχει ισχυρή επιρροή στην ανάπτυξη της συναισθηματικής, ηθικής και λεκτικής νοημο-σύνης (Harrison, 2004) και μας επιτρέπει να συμμετέχουμε με ίσους όρους στα πλαίσια της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας. Εδώ και δεκαετίες, η μελέτη της διεκπεραίωσης αλλά και της μάθησης της ανάγνωσης 1103

In modern societies, the role of reading is becoming increasingly crucial. Hence, any impairment to the reading ability can seriously limit a person's aspirations. The enormous importance of reading as an essential skill in modern life has encouraged many researchers to try and find more effective intervention approaches. Technology has been used extensively to assist and enhance literacy learning. This analytical review aims at presenting a comprehensive overview of the existing research on technology-based or technology-assisted reading interventions for elementary grades, between 2000 and 2017, along with analyzing various aspects of these studies. After extensive research, 42 articles have met the inclusion criteria, which have evaluated a total of 32 reading programs. The studies are classified into six categories of phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, and multi-component. Each reading category begins with a brief introduction. Then, the content and instructional mechanisms of each program in the category is explained, alongside the outcome of its interventions. It is found that vocabulary interventions, as well as using mobile, tablet and other non-computer technologies are massively overlooked. Furthermore, a very limited number of programs focused on fluency, none of them addressed all its components. In addition, despite the required long-term practice for fostering fluency, the reviewed studies have an average intervention time shorter than other intervention categories. This paper provides researchers and solution developers with an extensive and informative review of the current state of the art in reading interventions. Additionally, it identifies the current knowledge gaps and defines future research directions to develop effective reading programs.

The Common Core requires students to read complex texts and their teachers to scaffold such reading. To investigate dynamic scaffolding in practice, we developed a four-lesson guided-reading curriculum and paired it with a list of scaffolds at different levels (vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) for tutors to choose from during instruction with diverse middle schoolers. Tutors scaffolded across levels, and differentiated their comprehension (but not vocabulary or fluency) scaffolding by student ability. Scaffolding was both flexible and consistent according to the demands of the text and the needs of the readers. Examples of scaffolding and a guide for teachers are provided.

Attention deficit disorders are among the most prevalent and widely studied of all psychiatric disorders. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that 9.0% of children (12.3% of boys and 5.5% of girls) between ages 5 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD. Research consistently demonstrates that attention deficits have a deleterious effect on academic achievement with symptoms often appearing in early childhood and persisting throughout life. Impairments in attention, and not hyperactivity/impulsivity, are associated with learning difficulties and academic problems. To date, most studies have focused on addressing symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity with relatively little research being conducted on efficacious interventions to address the needs of students with ADHD, inattentive subtype. A growing body of literature now supports EEG operant conditioning (neurofeedback) as an evidence-based practice for improving attention. This study is the first to examine the use of neurofeedback as an intervention to improve reading achievement in a public school setting. A multiple-baseline-across-participants single-case model was used to assess five fourth grade students who received 40 daily sessions of neurofeedback. Following the intervention, quantitative electroenchalographic (qEEG) assessments revealed positive changes in most participants’ EEGs. Improvements were observed on measures of attention; on the IVA+Plus, a continuous performance test, and/or on the CNS-VS Shifting Attention Test. While results on tests of reading fluency, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) test of Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), and the Gray Oral Reading Tests - Fifth Edition (GORT-5), revealed little change, all participants expressed gains on the GORT-5 measure of reading comprehension. These results suggest that neurofeedback may have helped participants to become more accurately engaged with the text (thus reading speed was not increased) and yet they read with more focused attention to content. Furthermore, four of the five participants continued to express gains and one participant maintained observed growth on the GORT-5 during follow-up (conducted approximately five and a half months subsequent to posttest assessments). Similarly, four of the five participants also expressed gains, and one maintained previous performance on the IVA+Plus. These findings indicate that neurofeedback may be a viable option to assist children with attention deficits as an intervention strategy for improving both attention and reading achievement.

Over the past 10 years reading fluency has become a very popular topic for first language (L1) researchers and practitioners but in second language (L2) research the topic has raised very little interest.  This paper examines the research on reading fluency in both L1 and L2 contexts to identify when and how fluency should be practised by L2 practitioners.  The paper highlights the fact that reading fluency instruction is very important for L2 students.  However, the focus on fluency needs to be more than silent speed-reading practice.  The research indicates that fluency instruction needs to involve meaningful, engaging and authentic reading.  Fluency practice should instil a sense of enjoyment in reading in order to motivate students to read independently for pleasure.  Several different types of intensive-reading strategies meet these criteria as does the extensive reading practised on graded readers.  This paper will examine these techniques and outline an evidence-based reading-fluency programme.

This study investigated the effects of a six-month course in speed reading on three areas of reading proficiency development: (1) general reading comprehension; (2) knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary; and (3) reading-rate and accuracy. The participants (N = 105) were Japanese students studying English as a foreign language in Grade 10 of a Japanese private senior high school, randomly assigned to an experimental group (n =51), which received the speed reading treatment, and a control group (n =54), which received supplementary activities focused on high-frequency vocabulary development. The findings indicated that both the experimental and control groups made significant improvements in general reading comprehension. However, there was no significant difference between the experimental group (M = 14.27, SD = 4.01) and control group M = 14.31, SD = 4.07; t (103) = -.051, p= .959. Both the experimental group (M = 1.29, SD = 2.52) and control group (M = 1.35, SD = 2.49) increased their knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary. However, again there was no significant difference between the experimental group (M = 25.78, SD = 2.96) and control group M = 25.61, SD = 2.24; t (103) = -.337, p= .737. In terms of reading-rate development, the findings indicated a significant increase (M = 47, SD = 41.99) t (50) = 8.01, p < .0005. Finally, while higher levels of general reading comprehension and high reading speeds were correlated, the relationship was a small, r=.19, n = 51. The range of findings emerging from this current study adds weight to the existing research and go beyond those conducted in the Japanese context to date. One of the important questions these findings raise relates to the greater influence that other variables, such as lexico-grammatical knowledge, might have on the development of reading comprehension at this level of language proficiency.

Bu çalışmada ortaokul öğrencilerinin akıcı okuma becerilerinin tespit edilerek çeşitli değişkenler açısından
incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda öğrencilerin akıcı okuma becerileri ile sınıf düzeyleri, cinsiyet
özellikleri, sosyoekonomik durumları, anne-baba eğitim düzeyi ve Türkçe dersindeki akademik başarı düzeyleri
arasındaki ilişkiler incelenmiştir. Çalışmaya 2016-2017 eğitim-öğretim yılı güz yarıyılında Yozgat il merkezinden
tesadüfi olarak belirlenen 340 öğrenci dâhil edilmiştir. Her bir öğrenciye bir olay öyküsü, bir durum öyküsü bir
de makale türündeki metin birer dakika okutulmuştur. Öğrencilerin okumaları ses kaydedici ile kaydedilmiştir.
Daha sonra bu kayıtlar dinlenerek öğrencilerin akıcı okuma becerileri yanlış kelime sayısı, hız, hatasızlık ve
prozodi boyutları üzerinden değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışma, nicel araştırma yöntemlerinden betimsel ve ilişkisel
tarama modeli ile yürütülmüştür. Elde edilen veriler istatistik programı ile işlenmiştir. Bu araştırma kapsamında
ortaya konan sonuçlara göre akıcı okuma becerisi sınıf seviyesi yükseldikçe artmıştır. Cinsiyet değişkenine göre
kız öğrenciler erkek öğrencilerden daha akıcı okumuşlardır. Ailenin sosyoekonomik düzeyi, ebeveynin eğitim
düzeyi ve öğrencilerin Türkçe dersi akademik başarı düzeyi yükseldikçe akıcı okuma becerisi de artmıştır.

This book brings together theoretical and empirical approaches to second language (L2) fluency and provides a state-of-the-art overview of current approaches to the topic. The strength of the volume lies in its interdisciplinary approach: the chapters approach fluency from non-traditional starting points and go beyond disciplinary boundaries in their contributions. The volume includes chapters approaching fluency from L2 perspective and integrates perspectives from related fields, such as psycholinguistics, sign language studies and L2 assessment. The book extends the common foci and approaches of fluency studies and offers new perspectives that enable readers to evaluate critically existing paradigms and models. This encourages developing more comprehensive frameworks and directs future L2 fluency research into new areas of L2 learning and use.

Reading comprehension instruction is considered one of the major challenges that most English language teachers and students encounter. Therefore, providing a systematic, explicit, and flexible model to teaching reading comprehension strategies could help resolve some of these challenges and increase the possibility of teaching reading comprehension, particularly in language learners' classrooms. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to provide a model to teach reading comprehension strategies in language learning classrooms. The proposed instructional model is divided into three systematic phases through which strategies are taught before reading, during reading, and after reading. Each phase is explained and elaborated using recommended models for teachers. Finally, suggested considerations to consolidate this model are provided.

This is the Complete Publication of 'Reading in No Time', co-written by Dr. Ewald Oersted and Edouard d'Araille, originally published in 2000 as 'The Compleat Reader'. It is a comprehensive course in reading improvement skills with twenty-four test passages and a 'readometer' with which students of the program can gauge their progress. The first part of the course looks at the reading process itself; part two deals with eradicating bad reading habits (that decrease speed and comprehension); part three deals with 'Visual Reading' skills - to incrrease overall reading ability by over 200%; and part four provides guidance in a group of additional skills (skimming, scanning etc.) so as to be able to even further improve reading abilities. All of the timed reading tests are accompanied by comprehension tests so that the progress of the reader through the course can be carefully monitored from beginning to end. This is the adult edition of 'Reading in No Time' as a couple of the passages included are not suitable for under-18s. This volume is available for a limited time only on 'Academia.Edu' by the kind permission of the publishers - Living Time™ Media International.

This study examined the relationship between fourth grade primary school students’ reading habits/conditions/
situations and their comprehension regarding what they read. For this purpose, a correlational survey method was
used in the study. 90 fourth-grade students who were attending a state primary school in the center of Kütahya
participated to the study. Firstly, there are four separate tests: a fill in the blank test which measures reading as a
process, a short answer test which measures remembering, multiple choice test which measures both superficial
and in-depth meaning linking and open-ended questions which measure meaning linking skills ) were administered
to the students. Then, students were asked to read loudly 409-word narrative text and students’ voices were
recorded. The records were analyzed by experts to determine the number of words that students read per minute,
students’ reading mistakes and their prosody. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship
between fluent reading skills and reading comprehension. Moreover, multiple regression analysis was conducted
to examine the predictive power of reading skills for comprehension. The findings of the study demonstrated that
fluent reading was an indicator of comprehending; prosody predicted in-depth meaning linking better than the
other fluent reading skills; correct reading skills predicted superficial meaning linking better. The findings also
revealed that there was a weak correlation between reading speed and comprehension.

Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice - 13(4) • 2287-2290
©2013 Educational Consultancy and Research Center

Fluent reading is essential for successful comprehension. One dimension of reading fluency is reading rate, or reading speed. Because of the importance of reading fluency, fluency development activities should be incorporated into classroom practice. One activity that meets the fluency development conditions proposed by Nation (2007) is speed reading. An important question is whether reading speed gains measured in words per minute on controlled speed reading texts transfer to other types of texts. This paper reports on a preliminary, small-scale investigation of this question. The findings suggest that a speed reading course may contribute to faster reading speeds on other types of texts, but there remains a need for further experimental research into the impact of speed reading courses.