Text (Oral) Reading Fluency as a Construct in Reading Development: An Investigation of Its Mediating Role for Children From Grades 1 to 4

In the present study we investigated a developmentally changing role of text reading fluency in mediating the relations of word reading fluency and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. We addressed this question by using longitudinal data from Grades 1 to 4 and employing structural equation models. Results showed that the role of text reading fluency changes over time as children’s reading proficiency develops. In the beginning phase of reading development (Grade 1), text reading fluency was not independently related to reading comprehension over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. In Grades 2 to 4, however, text reading fluency completely mediated the relation between word reading fluency and reading comprehension, whereas it partially mediated the relation between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. These results suggest that text reading fluency is a dissociable construct that plays a developmentally changing role in reading acquisition.     

What oral text reading fluency can reveal about reading comprehension

Text reading fluency – the ability to read quickly, accurately and with a natural intonation – has been proposed as a predictor of reading comprehension. In the current study, we examined the role of oral text reading fluency, defined as text reading rate and text reading prosody, as a contributor to reading comprehension outcomes in addition to decoding efficiency and language comprehension. One hundred and six Dutch primary school children from fourth grade participated in this study and were assessed on decoding efficiency, vocabulary, syntactic ability, reading fluency performance and reading comprehension skills. Regression analysis showed that text reading prosody, not text reading rate, explained additional variance in reading comprehension performance when decoding efficiency and language comprehension were controlled for. This result suggests that the inclusion of text reading prosody as an aspect of text reading fluency is justified and that a natural intonation is associated with better comprehension of what is read.     

The role of IQ in a component model of reading

The purpose of this study was to test the role of visual processing speed and IQ in a model of reading. This study investigated whether the processes involved in reading differ between a group of children with and a group without reading disability. These two groups of children completed tests of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, decoding, processing speed, and intelligence. The results indicated that processing speed explains a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension over that accounted for by the simple view of reading. Also, IQ accounts for a significant amount of variance in reading over that accounted for by the simple view of reading and processing speed. Path analyses indicated that the effect of IQ on reading is partially mediated by decoding in the children with reading disability. The results point to the importance of the role of IQ in predicting reading comprehension.     

Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities

The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. Participants were 50 children referred to a university-based clinic because of suspected reading problems and/or a prior diagnosis of dyslexia, where children completed a battery of standardized intellectual, reading achievement, and processing measures. Within this clinical sample, a group of children were identified that exhibited specific deficits in their reading fluency skills with concurrent deficits in rapid naming speed and reading comprehension. This group of children would not have been identified as having a reading disability according to assessment of single word reading skills alone, suggesting that it is essential to assess reading fluency in addition to word reading because failure to do so may result in the under-identification of children with reading disabilities.     

Playing football without a ball: language,reading and academic performance in a high‐poverty school

Second language (L2) reading research suggests that there is a complex interplay between L2 proficiency, first language (L1) reading and L2 reading. However, not much is known about the effect of L1 proficiency on L1 reading, and of L1 reading on L2 reading, or vice versa, in bilingual settings when readers have few opportunities for extensive reading in their L1. The relationships between L1 (Northern Sotho) and L2 (English) proficiency and L1 and L2 reading were examined in Grade 7 learners attending a high‐poverty primary school in South Africa, during the course of a year when a reading intervention programme was implemented. The effect that attention to reading and accessibility of books had on the learners' reading proficiency in both languages was examined, and the factors that predicted academic performance were analysed. When the learners were engaged in more reading, L2 reading contributed more variance to L1 reading than L1 proficiency. Reading in both languages also contributed significantly to academic performance. The study highlights the need for more cross‐linguistic reading research in different educational settings.     

Lexical-semantic processing and reading: relations between semantic priming,visual word recognition and reading comprehension

The aim of this study was to investigate relations between lexical-semantic processing and two components of reading: visual word recognition and reading comprehension. Sixty-eight children from private schools in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 7 to 12 years, were evaluated. Reading was assessed with a word/nonword reading task and a reading comprehension task. Lexical-semantic processing was evaluated with a semantic priming experiment. Correlations were conducted in order to examine the relations between semantic priming effects (SPEs) and performance in reading tasks. Regression analyses were performed to test the hypothesis that word reading mediates the relation between semantic priming and reading comprehension. The results showed that SPEs correlated with both word reading and reading comprehension measures. Additionally, partial mediation by word reading was found for the prediction of reading comprehension by SPEs. The results are discussed in the context of reading models and other studies relating semantic priming and reading measures.     

Bidirectional Relations Between Text Reading Prosody and Reading Comprehension in the Upper Primary School Grades: A Longitudinal Perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine the directionality of the relationship between text reading prosody and reading comprehension in the upper grades of primary school. We compared 3 theoretical possibilities: Two unidirectional relations from text reading prosody to reading comprehension and from reading comprehension to text reading prosody and a bidirectional relation between text reading prosody and reading comprehension. Further, we controlled for autoregressive effects and included decoding efficiency as a measure of general reading skill. Participants were 99 Dutch children, followed longitudinally, from 4th to 6th grade. Structural equation modeling showed that the bidirectional relation provided the best fitting model. In 5th grade, text reading prosody was related to prior decoding and reading comprehension, whereas in 6th grade, reading comprehension was related to prior text reading prosody. As such, the results suggest that the relation between text reading prosody and reading comprehension is reciprocal but dependent on grade level.     

把“研究”带进课堂——谈中学语文研究性阅读教学

研究性阅读教学,是以研究性学习为教学理念,以合作探究为主要方法,以提高学生的阅读能力和人文修养为主要目的的教学活动。这种新型的阅读教学模式以“研读”代替“讲读”、以“课题”统领“问题”、以“拓展阅读”取代“封闭阅读”。研究性阅读充分激发了学生的想象力和创造力,提高了学生分析问题和解决问题的能力,使学生在阅读过程中作为一个心灵自由的阅读主体,充分享受到阅读的乐趣。     

Children’s morphological awareness and reading ability

We investigated the effects of morphological awareness on five measures of reading in 103 children from Grades 1 to 3. Morphological awareness was assessed with a word analogy task that included a wide range of morphological transformations. Results indicated that the new measure had satisfactory reliability, and that morphological awareness was a significant predictor of word reading accuracy and speed, pseudoword reading accuracy, text reading speed, and reading comprehension, after controlling the effects of verbal and nonverbal ability and phonological awareness. Morphological awareness also explained variance in reading comprehension after further controlling word reading. We conclude that morphological awareness has important roles in word reading and reading comprehension, and we suggest that it should be included more frequently in assessments and instruction.     

Do reading practices make a difference? Evidence from PIRLS data for Hong Kong and Taiwan primary school Grade 4 students

This study examined the influence of classroom pedagogic reading practices and out-of-school practices in explaining why the reading attainment of Hong Kong Grade 4 students was superior to that of their counterparts in Taiwan in the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Analyses of scores from 9301 students (4712 from Hong Kong and 4589 from Taiwan) revealed that independent reading in school made a distinctive contribution to the reading performance of Hong Kong and Taiwan students after controlling for the effects of students’ and parents’ reading attitudes, the availability of supportive home educational resources and student engagement in a range of reading practices. Out-of-school informational reading was found to be negatively associated with students’ reading attainment for both Hong Kong and Taiwan students. There was evidence that reading aloud in class in Taiwan classrooms significantly contributed to the Taiwan students’ poor reading performance.     

地方院校英语课堂阅读焦虑实证研究——以贺州学院为例

通过使用外语阅读焦虑量表FLRAS,调查了广西贺州学院120名学生的英语阅读课堂焦虑状况,讨论分析了其与阅读能力和表现自我满意度的相互关系。所得的调查结果表明:焦虑在地方院校学生的英语课堂阅读中存在非常普遍;学生阅读焦虑与英语阅读表现自我满意度的关系是中度相关;阅读焦虑与英语阅读能力自我满意度的关系也呈现出了相互相关关系。本研究结果也为克拉申的情感过滤假说提供了实证数据。     

The benefits of metacognitive reading strategy awareness instruction for young learners of English as a second language

This paper presents a small‐scale study examining the effects of metacognitive reading strategy instruction on English language learners' reading comprehension in a Hong Kong international school. Twenty‐five primary school (Grade 5) students who learn English as a second language participated in this study. Metacognitive instruction was incorporated into 10 process‐based reading lessons. Data were collected from notes learners took during reading, post‐reading reflection reports, teacher‐facilitated group discussions and two types of reading tests. Results revealed that the young learners could articulate several knowledge factors that influenced their reading. In addition, learners reported a better understanding of the nature and demands of reading, a deeper awareness of metacognitive knowledge in improving reading comprehension and increased confidence in handling reading exercises. The learners also showed enhanced reading performance compared to those in a control group without metacognitive intervention. This study highlights the potential of metacognitive instruction to enhance primary school English learners' reading literacy.     

The influence of personality characteristics on children's intrinsic reading motivation

Research suggests that children's motivation to read is influenced by their level of reading skill and reading self-concept. However, it is possible that characteristics unrelated to reading, such as underlying personality characteristics, may also influence children's motivation to read. The current study examined the extent to which children's intrinsic reading motivation was predicted by their reading skill, reading self-concept, and personality characteristics. Two hundred and ninety five children (aged 10–11) completed questionnaires measuring reading motivation, reading self-concept, personality characteristics, and also completed a reading assessment. It was found that personality explained significant variance in intrinsic reading motivation after accounting for reading skill and reading self-concept. Furthermore, personality factors accounted for similar amounts of variance in intrinsic reading motivation as reading self-concept and skill. The implications for improving children's motivation to read are discussed, in addition to the importance of tailoring educational and motivational strategies to individuals.     

Reading practice in Irish primary classrooms: too simple a view of reading?

This article investigates issues surrounding the adoption of the ‘simple view’ of reading. While this theory of the reading process has recently been espoused as the official view of early reading instruction in England, a recent Irish study, discussed in this article, indicated that this view of reading is also widespread among Irish teachers. This article argues that a less simple view of reading recognising the importance of cognitive flexibility, metacognition and explicit comprehension strategy instruction in reading needs to be promoted among all educators. A lack of emphasis on such explicit reading comprehension instruction has been found to be a common thread in research conducted in the United States, in England and in Ireland and is often linked to reading underachievement. Hence, the authors conclude that the implementation of a more holistic and inclusive ‘balanced’ model of reading development is immediately imperative in reading classrooms, both in Ireland and internationally.     

RAN as a predictor of reading skills,and vice versa: results from a randomised reading intervention

Although phonemic awareness is a well-known factor predicting early reading development, there is also evidence that Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) is an independent factor that contributes to early reading. The aim of this study is to examine phonemic awareness and RAN as predictors of reading speed, reading comprehension and spelling for children with reading difficulties. It also investigates a possible reciprocal relationship between RAN and reading skills, and the possibility of enhancing RAN by intervention. These issues are addressed by examining longitudinal data from a randomised reading intervention study carried out in Sweden for 9-year-old children with reading difficulties (N?=?112). The intervention comprised three main elements: training of phonics, reading comprehension strategies and reading speed. The analysis of the data was carried out using structural equation modelling. The results demonstrated that after controlling for autoregressive effects and non-verbal IQ, RAN predicts reading speed whereas phonemic awareness predicts reading comprehension and spelling. RAN was significantly enhanced by training and a reciprocal relationship between reading speed and RAN was found. These findings contribute to support the view that both phonemic awareness and RAN independently influence early phases of reading, and that both are possible to enhance by training.     

A path analytic test of the reading strategies mediation model: Relating cognitive competences and motivational influences to individual differences in fifth-grade students' reading comprehension

This study examined a theoretical model hypothesizing that reading strategies mediate the effects of intrinsic reading motivation, reading fluency, and vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension. Using path analytic methods, we tested the direct and indirect effects specified in the hypothesized model in a sample of 1105 fifth-graders. In addition to standardized tests and questionnaires, we administered a performance test to assess students' proficiency in the application of three reading strategies. The overall fit of the model to the data was good. Both cognitive (fluency and vocabulary) and motivational (intrinsic reading motivation) variables had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through their influence on reading strategies. Reading strategies had a unique effect on reading comprehension and partially mediated the effects that cognitive and motivational variables had on fifth-graders' reading achievements.     

Developmental Relations Between Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies

We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory were administered. A structural equation model was constructed to estimate the unique relations between reading strategies and reading comprehension, while controlling for reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory. The results showed that there was a unique effect of reading strategies on reading comprehension, and also of reading comprehension on reading strategies.     

A technique for tracking the reading rate to identify the e‐book reading behaviors and comprehension outcomes of elementary school students

Tracking individual reading behaviors is a difficult task, as is carrying out real‐time recording and analysis throughout the reading process, but these aims are worth pursuing. In this study, the reading rate is adopted as an indicator to identify different reading behaviors and comprehension outcomes. A reading rate tracking technique is thus developed with an Interactive E‐book Learning System (IELS), and this study examines whether the reading rate detected by this system can properly reflect the actual reading behaviors and comprehension outcomes of users. A total of 500 quantitative records were collected from the reading profiles of 43 fifth‐grade students, separated into two groups for oral and silent reading behaviors, and then analyzed to reveal the reading rates accounting for specific reading behaviors and comprehension outcomes. Our findings indicate that the reading rate can accurately reflect students' reading behaviors. In addition, a somewhat positive correlation between reading rates and comprehension outcomes was only found in the silent reading group. By using the technique presented in this work, the reading behaviors related to e‐books can be easily interpreted based on the reading rate over time throughout the reading process, something that is much more difficult when using printed books. Based on the results of this work, it is anticipated that educators can get better insights into students' behaviors with regard to reading, so as to deliver more personalized and effective instruction.     

The Home Literacy Environment and Preschool Children's Reading Skills and Interest

Research Findings: This study explored the association between the home literacy environment (HLE), conceptualized as comprising parents’ reading beliefs and home literacy practices, and preschoolers’ reading skills and reading interest. It also identified factors in the HLE that predict emerging reading competence and motivation to read. A total of 193 children age 6 years from 14 preschools across Singapore and their parents participated in the study. The parents completed a reading belief inventory, a family literacy activity inventory, and a demographic questionnaire that surveyed the child's reading interest. The children were administered a battery of standardized literacy tests. The study found a moderate relationship between the HLE and children's reading competencies and a strong relationship between the HLE and children's reading interest. When parents’ education level and children's age were controlled, hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that family literacy activities contributed more unique variance to children's reading outcomes and reading interest than did parents’ reading beliefs. Active parental involvement was the strongest component of the HLE, with parent–child engagement in reading and writing emerging as the best predictor of both the child's emerging reading skills and reading interest. With respect to reading beliefs, parents’ efficacy in supporting literacy development before their child attended school positively predicted reading competence, as did parents’ affect and verbal participation in fostering reading interest. However, verbal participation negatively predicted Singapore children's reading competence. Practice or Policy: The implications of the results were discussed.     

The role of word recognition,oral reading fluency and listening comprehension in the simple view of reading: a study in an intermediate depth orthography

Empirical research has provided evidence for the simple view of reading across a variety of orthographies, but the role of oral reading fluency in the model is unclear. Moreover, the relative weight of listening comprehension, oral reading fluency and word recognition in reading comprehension seems to vary across orthographies and schooling years. This study aims to examine the direct effects of these three variables on reading comprehension and to test for the existence of indirect effects of word recognition and listening comprehension on reading comprehension via oral reading fluency in European Portuguese, an orthography of intermediate depth. A sample of 264 students was assessed at the end of grades 2 and 4. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that listening comprehension, word recognition and oral reading fluency predicted reading comprehension in both grade 2 and grade 4. Moreover, the three variables measured in grade 2 predicted later reading comprehension in grade 4. Listening comprehension was always the strongest predictor. Oral reading fluency mediated the relationship between word recognition and reading comprehension, but it was not a mediator variable in the relationship between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. These findings indicate that, similarly to what has been found for other orthographies, the simple view of reading is a valid framework to account for reading comprehension variability in European Portuguese and that interventions to increase reading comprehension levels should focus on word recognition, fluency, and, especially, listening comprehension.