scholarly journals Academic Vocabulary and Reading Fluency: Unlikely Bedfellows in the Quest for Textual Meaning

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
David Paige ◽  
Grant Smith
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Fluent Reading ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Specialized Language ◽  
Simple Slope ◽  
Textual Meaning ◽  
The Relationship

Academic vocabulary is the specialized language used to communicate within academic settings. The Coxhead (2000) taxonomy is one such list that identifies 570 headwords representing academic vocabulary. Researchers have hypothesized that students possessing greater fluent reading skills are more likely to benefit from exposure to vocabulary due to greater amounts of time spent reading (Nagy and Stahl, 2007; Stanovich, 1986). In this study of 138 sixth- and seventh-grade students, we assess academic vocabulary, indicators of fluent reading, and silent reading comprehension to gain insight into relationships between the three. Our results found that reading rate mediates the relationship between academic vocabulary and reading comprehension, accounting for nearly one-third of the explained variance. Using simple slope analysis, we identified a threshold suggesting the point where reading rate exerts a neutral effect on reading comprehension beyond which vocabulary learning is no longer hindered.

scholarly journals Predictors of Latino English Learners’ Reading Comprehension Proficiency

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa A Grasparil ◽  
David A Hernandez
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Oral Reading ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Oral Reading Fluency ◽  
Reading Program ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Literacy Achievement ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Latino English Learners

Poor literacy achievement among English learners has contributed significantly to their high dropout rates, poor job prospects, and high poverty rates. The National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth has suggested that English learners benefit from the same direct, systematic instruction in the five essential components of reading shown effective for native-English-speaking students: phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Implementing effective reading instructional practices for English learners may reduce the literacy achievement gap between English learners and native English speakers. In this study, we used multiple regression to examine data for 1,376 third-grade Latino English learners to determine the strength of oral English proficiency, oral reading fluency, and academic vocabulary knowledge as predictors of reading comprehension proficiency. Findings of this study indicate a mismatch between English learners’ instructional needs and a widely used reading program component, assessment of words correct per minute (as a measure of oral reading fluency). Significant conclusions of this study suggest that educators seeking to promote the reading comprehension proficiency of Latino English learners consider using WCPM assessments and activities cautiously and strive to allocate more time for instruction and assessment of the prosodic dimension of oral reading fluency and academic vocabulary knowledge and skills.

scholarly journals The Effects of Repeated Readings and Attentional Cues on Reading Fluency and Comprehension

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. O'Shea ◽  
Paul T. Sindelar ◽  
Dorothy J. O'Shea
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Third Graders ◽  
Repeated Readings ◽  
Attentional Shift ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
Attentional Cues

The failure of some researchers to find improved reading comprehension with increased fluency may result from the assumption that readers automatically shift attention to comprehension when fluency is established. Research on cuing readers to a purpose in reading suggests that a simple cue about comprehension may be sufficient to prompt this attentional shift. In this study, the effects of repeated readings and attentional cues on measures of reading fluency and comprehension were examined. Thirty third graders read separate passages one, three, and seven times following cues to attend to either reading rate or meaning. After the final reading of each passage, the students retold as much of the story as they could. Fluency and proportion of story propositions retold were analyzed in repeated measures analyses of variance. Significant main effects for both repeated readings and attentional cues were obtained on both dependent measures. Thus, both fluency and comprehension increased as the number of repeated readings increased. In addition, readers cued to fluency read faster but comprehended less than those cued to comprehension. These results suggest that increasing fluency is a less efficient means of improving comprehension than presenting cues about comprehension.

scholarly journals How does gender impact the relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension?Akıcı okuma ve okuduğunu anlama arasındaki ilişkilerde cinsiyet nasıl bir rol oynamaktadır?

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 931
Author(s):  
Dudu Kaya ◽  
Kasım Yıldırım
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Expository Text ◽  
English Summary ◽  
Narrative Text ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Gender Impacts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Comprehension Tests

This research aimed to explore how gender impacts the relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension. The research sample conssits of a tatol of 100 seventh gaders. In order to assess the students’ reading comprehension and reading fluency levels, an expository and a narrative text were used. For the implemetantons, each student was asked to read orally the expository text and anwered the comprehension questions related to texts. The same procedure was used for the narrative teaxt reading. The comprehension tests were the researcher-develped. The recorded oral readings were scored according to reading fluency components including word recognition automaticity and prosody by the researchers.  In the comprehension tests were focues on deep and literal comprehension levels of the students. The research findings indicated that there were statistically significant relations between reading comprehension and reading fluency. However, the gender of the students did not affect the significant differences between reading fleuncy and reading comprehension. Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.  ÖzetBu araştırmada öğrencilerin akıcı okuma ve okuduğunu anlama düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkilerin cinsiyete göre değişip değişmediği incelenmiştir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Denizli il merkezindeki farklı okullarda öğrenim göre 7. sınıflardaki 100 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Öğrencilerin akıcı okuma ve okuduğunu anlamalarının belirlenmesinde sınıf seviyelerine uygun hikâye edici ve bilgi verici metinler kullanılmıştır. Uygulamalarda her öğrenciye önce hikâye edici metin sesli olarak okutulmuş ve kaydedilmiş sonra metinle ilgili sorular verilerek cevaplaması istenmiştir. Aynı işlemler aynı öğrenciler ile bilgi verici metin üzerinde de gerçekleştirilmiştir. Okuduğunu anlamayı basit ve derinlemesine anlama boyutlarında ölçen sorulardan oluşan test araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilmiştir. Kaydedilen sesli okumalar akıcı okuma bileşenlerine göre analiz edilerek puanlama yapılmıştır. Puanlamada okuma hızı ve prozodik okuma olmak üzere üç farklı bileşen değerlendirilmiştir. Okuduğunu anlama testi basit anlama ve derinlemesine anlama puanı olarak puanlanmıştır. Yapılan analizlerden elde edilen bulgulara göre hem kız hem erkek öğrencilerde akıcı okuma ile okuduğunu anlama arasında anlamlı ve olumlu ilişkiler bulunmaktadır. Ancak bu ilişki cinsiyet bağlamında farklılık göstermemektedir. Elde edilen bu sonuçlar ilgili bilimsel literatür bağlamında tartışılmış ve gerekli önerilerde bulunulmuştur.

Speed and time, texts and sentences

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Gina Biancarosa
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Situation Models ◽  
Time Model ◽  
Reading Research ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Text Unit

The objective of this study was to explore the relationship of reading rate to reading comprehension using different scales for reading rate. Although fluency research typically measures reading rate as speed (in words-per-minute) using whole texts as the text unit of interest, reading research investigating situation models measures rate as time (in seconds) using individual sentences as the unit of interest. The current study compared the predictive powers of these contrasting metrics. Time was shown to be the superior metric when both text- and sentence-reading times were included as predictors of comprehension, along with an interaction between them. The time model accounted for the curvilinear nature of the relationship and explained almost half of the variance in comprehension without violating the homoscedasticity assumption.

scholarly journals Comparison of the Impact of Extensive and Intensive Reading Approaches on the Korean EFL Learners’ Reading Rate and Reading Comprehension Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Young Park
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Intensive Reading ◽  
The Impact

Extensive Reading (ER) is a reading approach that aims to make covering large amounts of reading material enjoyable for language learners. Many experimental studies have showed the effectiveness of the ER approach on reading fluency, the ability to read words and process text rapidly and accurately. Though revealing, these findings need to be interpreted with caution due to methodological defects in the measurement of reading fluency in these ER studies. This quasi-experimental study compared the effect of the ER approach with that of the conventional Intensive Reading (IR) approach on EFL learners’ reading rate and reading comprehension with regard to leaners’ proficiency level. Over a 12-week timespan, two intact classes of 72 Korean secondary students received either ER (N = 36) or IR (N = 36) instruction, with pre- and post- differences in performance examined with regard to proficiency level.  Results of an ANCOVA revealed that students’ reading rate and comprehension increased significantly more from the ER approach than from the IR approach. That is, students from the ER group significantly increased their reading rate in comparison to the IR group without impairing reading comprehension. More specifically, the ER approach had a greater positive impact on the learners’ reading rate than the IR approach irrespective of participants’ English proficiency level. However, in terms of reading comprehension, the advanced and intermediate level learners benefited more from the ER approach, while the low level learners benefited more from the IR approach. 

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