Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning

Reading Fluency: It's Not Just Kid Stuff

by Joan Grigsby and Lynda Bertram

Fluency, along with decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension, is one of the basic components of reading. Research has shown that fluency can and should be explicitly taught to adult learners, and that fluency practice may lead to increases in reading achievement (Kruidenier, 2002). Despite this, it is frequently overlooked in adult reading instruction.

Fluency is defined as the ability to read rapidly and efficiently (also described using the term automaticity), in a manner largely error-free (accuracy), and with appropriate phrasing, rhythm, and expression (prosody). In other words, fluent reading sounds like actual speech, where someone groups words into phrases, pauses or slows down at certain points, and emphasizes key words.

Why is fluency important? Most notably, fluency is a necessary skill for comprehension, the ultimate goal of all reading. To understand a text, readers must be able to read without focusing all their cognitive resources on recognizing or sounding out individual words. Going through a text slowly, word-for-word, taxes shortterm memory so that the substance of the entire text is lost. Even good readers have experienced this when they read through a dense, highly technical text; they may read or sound out each word correctly—albeit laboriously—but at the end they have no idea of what they have read.

Oral reading is a necessary component of fluency practice. Hearing an adult student read aloud allows a teacher to monitor the learner's progress; it also builds the reader's confidence, lets him or her practice their skills, and creates a connection between spoken and written language. A teacher can employ a variety of strategies for students who are reluctant to read aloud. Among these are modeling, in which the teacher reads with appropriate expression and phrasing as the student follows along; echo reading, where the teacher reads a sentence or phrase, followed by the learner imitating the teacher's phrasing and flow; and paired reading, where two students read in unison or take turns reading and re-reading the same passage to each other. A teacher may also employ shared reading: reading in unison with the student but gradually fading out until the student is reading on his or her own. Regardless of the strategy used, teachers and tutors must keep in mind that practice is a major key to success; indeed, repeated reading has been called "the most effective instructional technique for increasing adult reading fluency" (Curtis & Kruidenier, 2005).

Another effective method for fluency instruction is Cloze reading, in which words or parts of words are deleted from a text. Adult learners frequently hit a brick wall when they pause to struggle over unfamiliar words, slowing their reading—and comprehension— rates. Often, however, they are skilled enough to gain meaning from context if they can get to the end of a sentence or paragraph. Sometimes humming or saying "blank" in place of an unfamiliar word is enough to allow the reader to deduce the word in context. The teacher may then isolate the unfamiliar word or phrase for decoding or vocabulary instruction.

"Chunking" of text can also be used to demonstrate that reading and comprehension occur in phrases, not necessarily in individual words. The teacher can start with a familiar text to illustrate how words are grouped into phrases, for example: "I pledge allegiance//to the flag//of the United States//of America." After demonstrating this method with a few texts, the teacher can assist students in chunking sentences by themselves.

Matching readers to texts is an important component of fluency practice. Johns and Berglund (2006) analogize building fluency to building a bridge, one that spans the gap between word-calling and comprehension. Among other critical requirements, a bridge has to be "right-sized" for what will pass above and below its span. So it is critical that teachers "right-size" the texts that they present to their students.

In this process, teachers can do simple assessments of students' fluency levels using one-minute timed readings and then determine reading levels as well as gains in fluency using a rubric such as the NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scale. To be certain that texts are appropriate for the reader, the teacher can apply formulas for measuring reading levels (Fry, Flesch-Kincaid, etc.), which are available on the web.

In reflecting upon the benefits of fluency practice, educator Susan McShane (2004) has said, "Improvements in reading speed, accuracy, and expression are concrete outcomes of instruction, and improved fluency may lead to improved comprehension."

References
Curtis, M.E., and Kruidenier, J. (2005). Teaching adults to read.
Retrieved November 1, 2011, from [here].

Johns, J. and Berglund, R. (2006). Fluency: Strategies and Assessments (3rd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Kruidenier, J. (2002). Research-based Principles for Adult Basic Reading Instruction. Washington, D.C.: The Partnership for Reading.

McShane, S. (2004). Fluency development: Practice means progress. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from [here].

About the Authors
Joan Grigsby, M.Ed. is Director, and Lynda Bertram, J.D., M.Ed. is Program Resource Specialist for The Learning Center of North Texas' Adult Services Division, which provides training, assessment, and direct services to adult literacy programs and providers. This article is excerpted from one of their professional development workshops.