Bashir, A. S., Hook, P. E., (2009) Fluency: A Key Link Between Word Identification
and Comprehension. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, pg. 196200
Bashir and Hook emphasize the complexity of the reading process and the
importance of reading fluency. Fluency incorporates automatic word recall and
plays and important role in reading comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000).
Therefore fluency is a key link between word recognition and comprehension (p.
196).
Reading is a complex process that can be difficult for everyone at times. We all have
read something that we have to slow down or reread to make meaning. When we
come across words we’ve never seen before we try to use context clues to make
meaning. Sometimes we think we know the word but as we continue reading we
find that we don’t understand the meaning of the word that the author was using.
Long sentences are sometimes difficult, especially when the vocabulary is not
familiar to the reader. Fluency can be disrupted by any of these factors and our
comprehension may also suffer because of this. “Word identification as well as the
linguistic and cognitive requirements are essential for fluent reading and
comprehension of the text” (p. 197).
“Fluent reading of the passage results from the integration of decoding,
naming speed, orthographic pattern recognition and also integrates language
knowledge of a morphological, syntactic, and semantic nature” (Adams, 1990;
Berninger, Abbott, Billingsley, & Nagy, 2001; Katzir et al., 2006; Wolf & KatzirCohen, 2001). This quote is about the Ghriardi passage included in the article. I
included it because I feel this is also true when reading other passages/texts. “The
knowledge of content and the vocabulary acquired through learning about content
are fundamental to successful comprehension” (p. 197). There are many factors
that make fluency challenging. There are students who have little word knowledge,
labored word calling, and no fluency. Some may have word knowledge but have no
automaticity and this interferes with their fluency. These students also have trouble
with comprehension. Another factor that influences fluency is background
knowledge of the content being read. When a student lacks these experiences they
can’t read with fluency and comprehension.
“There is an extensive evidence base for developing reading fluency”
(Allington, 1983; National Reading Panel, 2000) Meyer and Felton described fluency
as “the ability to read connected text rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and
automatically with little conscious attention to the mechanisms of reading such as
decoding” (p.197). It is also noted that fluency also includes appropriate stress,
intonation, and prosodic features (Torgesen, Rashotte, & Alexander, 2001).
“The development of reading fluency depends on the interaction of multiple
factors that include but are not limited to the following: phonological awareness,
visual perception, orthographic representation, speed of lexical access and retrieval,
and higher level language and conceptual knowledge” (Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001).
Fluency gradually develops over time and we should teach the skills necessary from
the very beginning of reading. It is these skills learned early that are used later to
develop fluency. Beginning readers may read slow and appear labored. As they
begin to use meaningful phrasing and appropriate prosody they can then shift
“gears” to comprehend the text read.
Reading fluency is crucial for students to move their attention and focus from
decoding and to making meaning of the words they read. Fluency and
comprehension are linked. When students have to put all their focus into word
attack skills they can’t attend to the story the author is telling. That is to say that
when beginning readers direct most of their efforts toward word attack issues, we
must help them increase their automaticity skills. This will allow them to focus on
comprehension.
“The student cannot achieve reading fluency until he or she can recognize
words accurately and effortlessly. To do this, the student needs both phonological
and orthographic knowledge as well as sufficient language and conceptual
knowledge” (Kame’enui et., 2001). As a teacher we should practice these skills with
our students so that they become automatic. As we teach these skills we should also
put an equal amount of focus on word meaning. “Comprehension can facilitate
fluent word recognition” (p. 199). Repeated readings are an effective strategy to
help improve reading fluency. Prosody is also improved as a student does repeated
readings. Improving fluency is not always easy though. As readers get older
improving fluency becomes more difficult. “Preventive interventions were found to
produce better outcomes for fluency than did remediation interventions” (Torgeson,
Alexander, et al., 2001). We need to intervene early and remediate immediately
once a problem with fluency is identified to increase a student’s chance to develop
fluency.
In conclusion Bashir and Hook believe fluency instruction must be integrated
in to all areas of teaching reading. “We need to recognize the importance of
cognitive and linguistic abilities as well as motivational and affective factors
required for the development of reading fluency and comprehension. If we are to
assist students to read and understand what they have read, our work must develop
fluency as well as build prior knowledge, facilitate the underpinnings of word
recognition, develop linguistic knowledge and access to different text genre,
facilitate verbal reasoning, and teach strategies for comprehension” (p. 199).