Abstract
In the present study we investigated developmental relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, and text reading fluency to reading comprehension in a relatively transparent language, Korean. A total of 98 kindergartners and 170 first graders in Korea were assessed on a series of tasks involving listening comprehension, word reading fluency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Results from multigroup structural equation models showed that text reading fluency was a dissociable construct from word reading fluency for both kindergartners and first graders. In addition, a developmental pattern emerged: listening comprehension was not uniquely related to text reading fluency for first graders, but not for kindergartners, over and above word reading fluency. In addition, text reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension for kindergartners, but not for first graders, after accounting for word reading fluency and listening comprehension. For first graders, listening comprehension dominated the relations. There were no differences in the pattern of relations for skilled and less skilled readers in first grade. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective for reading comprehension component skills including text reading fluency.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Although oral reading fluency has been widely used in the literature, we use the term, text reading fluency, to refer to fast and accurate reading of connected text, excluding reading prosody. Please see Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, and Meisinger (2010), and Kuhn and Stahl (2003) for the importance of reading prosody as part of reading fluency definition. We also use the term word reading fluency to refer to the fast and accurate word reading in a list format.
To estimate the extent to which children are likely to interact with orthographically opaque words in written texts, we examined a Korean reading text book for first graders (Korean Ministry of Education). A total of 28 stories (directions for children were excluded) were included in the analysis. These stories included, on average, 208.29 syllables with a large variation (SD = 212.25), ranging from 27 syllables to 790 syllables.
In the word reading fluency tasks, many items consisted of more than one word, but included those that occur together separated by spacing. In Korean, spacing does not occur after each word, but complex (see Kim, Radach, & Vorstius, 2012a; Lee & Ramsey, 2000 for more information). For instance, 아빠가 (dad + a subject case marker) was presented together in an item as found in connected texts.
This is partly due to the agglutinative nature of Korean in which words are formed by joining morphemes together.
When the first two passages were collapsed, Cronbach’s alpha was estimated to be .72. However, in the latent variable approach, we used students’ performance on these two tasks as separate tasks in order to have higher degrees of freedom. When analysis was conducted using two indicators of reading comprehension (i.e., the sum score of tasks 1 and 2, and score for task 3), the results were identical.
References
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Adlof, S. M., Catts, H. W., & Little, T. D. (2006). Should the simple view of reading include a fluency component? Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19, 933-958.
Aro, M., & Wimmer, H. (2003). Learning to read: English in comparison to six more regular orthographies. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 621–635.
Biemiller, A. (1977–1978). Relationship between oral reading rates for letters, words, and simple text in the development of reading achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 13, 223–253.
Breznitz, Z. (1997). The effect of accelerated reading rate on memory for text among dyslexic readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 287–299.
Breznitz, Z. (2006). Fluency in reading: Synchronization of processes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Carrow-Woolfolk, E. (1995). Oral and written language scales. Bloomington, MN: Pearson Assessment.
Carrow-Woolfolk, E. (1999). Comprehensive assessment of spoken language. Bloomington, MN: Pearson Assessment.
Cohen-Mimran, R. (2009). The contribution of language skills to reading fluency: A comparison of two orthographies for Hebrew. Journal of Child Language, 36, 657–672.
Chard, D. J., Pikulski, J. J., & McDonagh, S. H. (2006). Fluency: The link between decoding and comprehension for struggling readers. In T. Rasinski, C. Blanchowicz, & K. Lems (Eds.), Fluency instruction: Research-based best practices (pp. 39–61). New York: Guilford Press.
Catts, H. W., Adlof, S. M., Hogan, T. P., & Weismer, S. E. (2005). Are specific language impairment and dyslexia distinct disorders? Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 48, 1378–1396.
Catts, H. W., Petscher, Y., Schatschneider, C., Bridges, M. S., & Mendoza, K. (2009). Floor effects associated with universal screening and their impact on the early identification of reading disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42, 163–176. doi:10.1177/0022219408326219.
Daane, M. C., Campbell, J. R., Grigg, W. S., Goodman, M. J., & Oranje, A. (2005). Fourth-grade students reading aloud: NAEP 2002 special study of oral reading (NCES 2006-469). US Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
de Jong, P.F., & van der Leij, A. (1999). Specific contributions of phonological abilities to early reading acquisition: Results from a Dutch latent variable longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 450–476.
de Jong, P. F., & van der Leij, A. (2003). Developmental changes in the manifestation of a phonological deficit in dyslexic children learning to read a regular orthography. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 22–40.
Ehri, L. C. (2002). Phases of acquisition in learning to read words and implications for teaching. In R. Stainthorp & P. Tomlinson (Eds.) Learning and teaching reading. London: British Journal of Educational Psychology Monograph Series II.
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M. K., & Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5, 239–256.
Francis, D. J., Fletcher, J. M., Catts, H., & Tomblin, J. B. (2005). Dimensions the assessment of reading comprehension. In S. G. Paris & S. A. Stahl (Eds.), Children’s reading comprehension and assessment (pp. 369–394). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Harn, B. A., Stoolmiller, M., & Chard, D. J. (2008). Measuring the dimensions of alphabetic principle on the reading development of first graders: The role of automaticity and unitization. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41, 143–157.
Hiebert, E. H., & Reutzel, D. R. (Eds.). (2010). Revisiting silent reading: New directions for teachers and researchers. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Hoover, W. A., & Gough, P. B. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 127–160.
Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indices in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.
Hudson, R. F., Pullen, P. C., Lane, H. B., & Torgesen, J. K. (2009). The complex nature of reading fluency: A multidimensional view. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 25, 4–32.
Hudson, R. F., Torgesen, J. K., Lane, H. B., & Turner, S. J. (2012). Relations among reading skills and sub-skills and text-level reading proficiency in developing readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 483–507.
Huemer, S., Landerl, K., Aro, M., & Lyytinen, H. (2008). Training reading fluency among poor readers of German: Many ways to the goal. Annals of Dyslexia, 58, 115–137.
Jenkins, J. R., Fuchs, L. S., van den Broek, P., Espin, C., & Deno, S. L. (2003). Sources of individual differences in reading comprehension and reading fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 719–729.
Johnston, T. C., & Kirby, J. R. (2006). The contribution of naming speed to the simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19, 339–361.
Joshi, R. M., & Aaron, P. G. (2000). The component model of reading: Simple view of reading made a little more complex. Reading Psychology, 21, 85–97.
Joshi, R. M., Tao, S., Aaron, P. G., & Quiroz, G. (2012). Cognitive component of componential model of reading applied to different orthographies. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45, 480–486.
Kim, Y.-S. (2007). Phonological awareness and literacy skills in Korean: An examination of the unique role of body–coda units. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 67–93.
Kim, Y.-S. (2009). The relationship between family literacy practices and developmental trajectories of emergent literacy and conventional literacy skills for Korean children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22, 57–85.
Kim, Y.-S. (2010). Componential skills of spelling in Korean. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14, 137-158.
Kim, Y.-S. (2011a). Proximal and distal predictors of reading comprehension: Evidence from young Korean readers. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(2), 167-190.
Kim, Y.-S. (2011b). Considering linguistic and orthographic features in early literacy acquisition: Evidence from Korean. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 177-189.
Kim, Y.-S., & Park, C. (2012). Relations among listening comprehension, list reading fluency, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension in Korean. Paper presented at the Society for Scientific Studies of Reading, Montreal, Canada.
Kim, Y.-S., & Petscher, Y. (2013). Language general and specific factors in letter acquisition: Considering child and letter characteristics in Korean. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26, 263-292.
Kim, Y.-S., Wagner, R. K., & Foster, L. (2011). Relations among oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, and reading comprehension: A latent variable study of first-grade readers. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(4), 338-362.
Kim, Y.-S., Radach, R., & Vorstius, C. (2012a). Eye movements and parafoveal processing during reading in Korean. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 1053-1078.
Kim, Y.-S., Wagner, R., & Lopez, D. (2012b). Developmental relations between reading fluency and reading comprehension: A longitudinal study from grade one to two. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 113, 93-111.
Kim, Y.-S., Petscher, Y., Foorman, B. & Zhou, C. (2010). The contributions of phonological awareness and letter-name knowledge to letter sound acquisition—A cross-classified multilevel model approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 313-326.
Kirby, J. R., Georgiou, G. K., Martinussen, R., & Parrila, R. (2010). Naming speed and reading: From prediction to instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 341–362.
Klauda, S. L., & Guthrie, J. T. (2008). Relationships of three components of reading fluency to reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 310–321.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Kuhn, M. R., Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Meisinger, E. B. (2010). Aligning theory and assessment of reading fluency: Automaticity, prosody, and definitions of fluency. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 232–253.
Kuhn, M. R., & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 3–21.
Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an insurance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95, 492-527.
Logan, G. D. (1997). Automaticity and reading: Perspectives from the insurance theory of automatization. Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 13, 123–146.
LaBerge, D., & Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 62, 293–323.
Lee, I., & Ramsey, R. (2000). The Korean language. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2006). Mplus. Los Angeles: Muthén and Muthén.
Mancilla-Martinez, J., Kieffer, M. J., Biancarosa, G., Christodoulou, J. A., & Snow, C. E. (2011). Investigating English reading comprehension growth in adolescent language minority learners: Some insights from the simple view. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 24, 339–354. doi:10.1007/s11145-009-9215-5.
Morfidi, E., van der Leij, A., de Jong, P., Scheltinga, F., & Bekebrede, J. (2007). Reading in two orthographies: A cross-linguistic study of Dutch average and poor readers who learn English as a second language. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 20, 753–784. doi:10.1007/s11145-006-9035-9.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Perfetti, C. A. (1985). Reading ability. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Pikulski, J. J., & Chard, D. J. (2005). Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 58, 510–519.
Posner, M. I., & Snyder, C. R. R. (1975). Attention and cognitive control. In R. L. Solso (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium (pp. 55–85). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Primor, L., Pierce, M. E., & Katzir, T. (2011). Predicting reading comprehension of narrative and expository texts among Hebrew-speaking with and without a reading disability. Annals of Dyslexia, 61, 242–268.
Rasinski, T. (2004). Creating fluency readers. Educational Leadership, 61, 46–51.
Ridel, B. W. (2007). The relation between DIBELS, reading comprehension, and vocabulary in urban first-grade students. Reading Research Quarterly, 42, 546–567.
Roehrig, A. D., Petscher, Y., Nettles, S. M., Hudson, R. F., & Torgesen, J. K. (2008). Not just speed reading: Accuracy of the DIBELS oral reading fluency measure for predicting high-stakes third grade reading comprehension outcomes. Journal of School Psychology, 46, 343–366.
Samuels, S. J. (2006). Toward a model of reading fluency. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say about fluency instruction (pp. 24–46). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Savage, R. (2006). Reading comprehension is not always the product of nonsense-word decoding and linguistic comprehension: Evidence from teenagers who are extremely poor readers. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10, 143–164.
Sohn, H.-M. (1999). The Korean Language. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Storch, S. A., & Whitehurst, G. J. (2002). Oral language and code-related precursors to reading: Evidence from a longitudinal structural model. Developmental Psychology, 38, 934–947.
Schilling, S. G., Carlisle, J. F., Scott, S. E., & Zeng, J. (2007). Are fluency measures accurate predictors of reading achievement? Elementary School Journal, 107, 429–448. doi:10.1086/518622.
Schwanenfulgel, P. J., Meisinger, E. B., Wisenbaker, J. M., Kuhn, M. R., Strauss, G. P., & Morris, R. D. (2006). Becoming a fluent and automatic readers in the early elementary school years. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 496–522.
Seymour, P. H. K., Aro, M., & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.
Share, D. L. (2008). On the anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an “outlier” orthography. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 584–615.
Stanovich, K. E. (1980). Toward an interactive-compensatory model of individual differences in the development of reading fluency. Reading Research Quarterly, 16, 32–71.
Thompson, M. S., & Green, S. B. (2006). Evaluating between-group differences in latent variable means. In G. R. Hancock & R. O. Mueller (Eds.), A second course in structural equation modeling (pp. 119-169). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Vadasy, P. F., & Sanders, E. A. (2008). Repeated reading intervention: Outcomes and interactions with readers’ skills and classroom instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 272–290.
Vukovic, R. K., & Siegel, L. S. (2006). The double-deficit hypothesis: A comprehensive analysis of the evidence. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 25–47. doi:10.1177/00222194060390010401.
Wimmer, H. (1993). Characteristics of developmental dyslexia in a regular writing system. Applied Psycholinguistics, 14, 1–33.
Wolf, M. (2001). Dyslexia, fluency and the brain. Cambridge, MA: York Press.
Wolf, M., & Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5, 211–239.
Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K., & Mather, N. (2001). Woodcock Johnson tests of achievement (3rd ed.). Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, YS., Park, C.H. & Wagner, R.K. Is oral/text reading fluency a “bridge” to reading comprehension?. Read Writ 27, 79–99 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9434-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9434-7