Fluency through reading

Fluency

through

repeated reading

Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and automatically with

expression. Because fluent readers do not have to slow down in order

to concentrate on decoding the individual words in a text, they can

focus their attention on the text's meaning.

In this way, fluency acts as a bridge between word recognition and

comprehension, and this relationship is reciprocal. That is, when a

student understands the meaning of the text he/she is reading, it is

much easier to read that text with expression.

Prosody is a term that is frequently heard in discussions

of fluency. Prosody refers to the appropriate use of intonation and phrasing in reading.

Reading involves paying attention to punctuation signs like

commas and periods, assigning appropriate stress to individual

words within a sentence, and raising or lowering voice intonation

to match the meaning of the text (e.g., raising the voice at the end

of a question).

Paying attention to the elements of prosody allows us to quantify

and measure what we refer to as "reading with expression."

How fluency relates to ELLs

Instruction in fluency can be particularly beneficial for English

language learners because activities designed to enhance

fluency in reading can also a contribute to oral language

development in English.

As students practice reading English text accurately and

automatically, they are gaining valuable information about the

sounds and cadences of spoken English, and they are also

developing vocabulary skills that can contribute to oral

language fluency, as well as reading and listening comprehension.

Reading Skills:

There are different types of reading and different ways to

understand what you read.

When you’re reading in your native language, you don’t have

to think about what you’re going to read, how you’re going to

read it or how you’re going to make sure you’ll understand it.

Reading in your native language is automatic—it just happens.

Over time, with effort and practice, reading in English will

become just as automatic for you.

So what should you do?

\Well, one way to increase your contact hours with English that

you can actually understand is through a practice called extensive reading. The idea is that you choose books to read that are very

easy to understand, and you then read lots and lots of them.

For most learners, this involves using graded readers, that is, books

written using the most common English words for people who are

not yet fluent at English.

And if you read at a level just at or just below your actual level,

then you can read easily and smoothly. Then you can focus on

the actual content of what you are reading instead of the language

itself.

When you can just enjoy the story, then you can forget about

the language. And then guess what? You are exposing your

mind to many different English patterns over and over again.

And if you see a new vocabulary word, you just skip right over it

and infer the meaning. You’ll see it again anyway. You don’t

actually need a dictionary. You simply internalize these

vocabulary words and sentence patterns.

And then when you go to speak, the patterns can express

themselves through your speech since you have seen them

so many times. Interesting, huh?

Assessing reading fluency

As with any type of instruction, fluency instruction depends

upon ongoing assessment to identify individual students'

strengths and needs. Effective fluency assessment must

include measures of all three components of fluency: reading

accuracy and prosody.

It is important to note that the accuracy percentages and the

reading rate ranges described in this article are based on research conducted in English and should not be applied to reading in other

languages. Even languages that use the same alphabet differ in

such characteristics as phonetic regularity, syntactical complexity,

and even average word length, all of which can affect reading

accuracy and rate.Additional research is needed to determine

appropriate accuracy and rate ranges for other languages.

Assessing reading accuracy

Accuracy refers to the percentage of words a reader can read

correctly in a given text. Measuring accuracy allows

teachers to choose texts at an appropriate difficulty level

for each student. In order to improve their reading, students

need texts that are difficult enough to require them to practice

using the reading strategies they are learning without being

so difficult that the student is overwhelmed.

Four Types of Reading

Intensive reading.

Reading intensively means trying to understand every word on the page. You want to get as much information as you can from the text.

This is the kind of reading you do when you have some time to really focus. You don’t want to be distracted (unable to pay attention).

You’ll also want to keep a dictionary handy because you’ll want to look up any words you don’t know. Grab a notebook, too—it’s always a good idea to take notes as you read!

When you practice intensive reading, pick a fairly short text that interests you. If you have a really long text—or you just don’t care about the topic—you might give up before you finish.

Try to make this process as interesting and enjoyable as you can. That way, you’ll want to do more intensive reading. And the more you can use this powerful tool for improving English, the better.

Extensive reading.

Extensive reading simply means casually reading anything you

see in English. Don’t stress. Don’t worry about what every word

means.

Read a new recipe. Read an email. Read a blog post.

Read billboards along the highway. Read newspaper headlines.

It doesn’t matter what you read—just read in English. Anything.

Everything.

Extensive reading is important because it opens you up to all kinds of

English words and lets you practice reading in many different contexts.

The more extensive reading you do, the more comfortable you’ll be

with reading in English. And the more comfortable you are, the more

confident you’ll become!

Skimming.

When you need to read something quickly to get the main idea of the text, you can skim the text.

Skimming means to simply read on the surface. In other words, you don’t go too deep into the details. You don’t need to know what every word means. You can just read deeply enough to get the basic idea.

You can skim with a finger on the page, tracing swiftly underneath the words as you read. Use the pace of your finger to make yourself read faster. Your brain will naturally keep pace with (go as fast as) your finger.

Scanning.

If you’re looking for specific information when you read a text, try

scanning for it. When you scan, it’s almost like using your brain

as a search engine.You’re looking out for certain key words or

phrases.

You don’t need to pay attention to everything. Just stay focused,

ignoring almost everything except for the information you need.