The importance of Fluency to Reading Comprehension

Fluency




Today I want to discuss another important element of Reading – Fluency.

Fluency is the ability to read efficiently, it provides a bridge to comprehension and consists of three components: accuracy, speed and prosody.

Accuracy is the ability to recognize familiar words automatically without any conscious thought and to identify unfamiliar words almost as quickly. When students have to stop to decode words they are not reading fluently and this may because the selection is too difficult.

Speed is the rate at which students read. Excessively fast or slow reading is dysfluent and can hinder reading comprehension.

Prosody is the ability to read expressively with appropriate phrasing and intonation.



Importance of Fluency

Fluent readers are better able to comprehend what they read because they automatically recognise most words and can use a range of word identification strategies to decode unfamiliar words. In contrast students who are not fluent often read slowly, grouping words inappropriately and without proper intonation. Because they often lack the metacognitive skills of the skilled peers they spend most of their mental energies identifying words leaving little cognitive resources for comprehension.



Factors which promote dysfluent reading




According to Allington (2009), there are three key reasons for some readers struggle with fluency

• The books they are expected to read, usually the class text, are too difficult. They must be given books at their instructional and independent levels.

• They actually do very little reading, even though reading volume is the key to developing fluency

• Teachers often interrupt them as soon as they misread a word rather than giving them the opportunity to notice the error and correct it.



How can teachers promote Fluency




Rasinski (2003) identified four principles of fluent instruction

1. Model fluent reading for students

2. Provide oral support while students are reading

3. Do repeated readings of brief text

4. Focus students attention on chunking words into meaningful phrases

The following website can provide additional information to readers who need additional information on improving fluency.

http://newteachersupport.suite101.com/article.cfm/strategies_for_improving_fluency