How does fluency contribute to the development of reading competency?

In a course I took at Queen's University, I was asked this question: How does fluency contribute to the development of reading competency?

Fluency is a very important part of literacy, more specifically to reading, because fluency develops “automaticity in word recognition and prosody or expressiveness in oral reading” (Schreiber,1980, 1987, 1991; Schreiber & Read, 1980). Automaticity “is that part of the fluency bridge that connects to phonics or word recognition” (Rasinski & Samuels, 2011). The first stage is to connect the phonics to word reading. Word reading enables students to use their mental energy to understand the meaning of the words. At this stage, prosody plays an important role because “Prosody, the melodic features of oral language, is that part of fluency that completes the metaphorical bridge; it connects fluency to comprehension” (Rasinski & Samuels, 2011). Prosody allows students to place emphasis on certain points, giving the text meaning. The benefit of prosody is “readers who read with good oral prosody and text phrasing tend to have better comprehension in silent reading” (Rasinski & Samuels, 2011). It is important to note that fluency is not only the rate at which students read, but it is also the comprehension of what is being read. Inevitably, a lot of emphasis on fluency is placed on the speed at which students read as speed is a quantifiable measurement. Comprehension plays an important role because without understanding what is read, literacy and reading development are limited.



Faver, S. (2008). Repeated reading of poetry can enhance reading fluency. Reading Teacher, 62(4), 350-352. doi: 10.1598/RT.62.4.8

Rasinski, T. V., & Samuels, S. J. (2011). Reading fluency: What it is and what it is not. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (4th ed., pp. 94-114). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Schreiber, P., & Read, C. (1980). Children's use of phonetic cues in spelling, parsing, and-maybe-reading. Bulletin of the Orton Society, 30, 209-224. doi:10.1007/BF02653719