Decoding Skills: Wo rd Identification and Fluency By the time students have reached fourth grade, they should have been taught the word identification skills that will allow them to decode words that are in their oral language vocabularies. Students who are reading below grade level, however, can profit from phonics instruction and related word identification skills. Beyond third grade there would appear to be two major word identification goals for most students developing the capacity to process longer, multi-syllable words and the development of fluency. U n f o r t u n a t e l y, little has been written about and very little re s e a rc h exists on the topic of decoding longer words. From a theoretical point of view students should be able to function at a stage of development at which readers can associate sounds with clusters of letters or chunks of w o rds. However, in order to store these clusters, they need to have had s u fficient practice in processing words carefully in order to develop strategies for dividing words into syllables or chunks. While "rules" for decoding longer words may give a developing reader a place to start decoding, they are not sufficiently reliable for reading longer word s. Instead, teachers need to model flexible strategies for dividing words into pronounceable units and to provide guided practice in decoding longer word s. T h rough the repeated processing of texts, students develop the capacity for rapidly, accurately, and automatically recognizing an i n c reasingly large store of words which results in fluent reading. Fluency can be defined as "freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension in silent reading or the expression of ideas in oral reading or automaticity" (Harris & Hodges, 1995). Two essential aspects of fluency are accuracy (freedom from word identification problems) and rapid, effortless decoding (automaticity). While expressive, fluent oral reading is a worthwhile skill to have for sharing written text with others, fluent silent reading is critical to eff e c t i v e c o m p rehension and learning as well as to the ability to read for pleasure. Readers engage in silent reading far more commonly than in oral re a d i n g. The speed of silent reading can be measured; however, its accuracy cannot be directly observed. There f o re, silent reading fluency is often inferre d f rom the observation and assessment of oral re a d i n g. Fluency of word identification is not sufficient for comprehension; it is a pre requisite for it. If children read slowly and laboriously, their c o m p rehension of texts will likely be limited. Understanding, interpre t i n g, 44
All major research syntheses on the topic of fluency stress the i m p o rtance of mu c h p ractice in reading as the vehicle for achiev i n g f l u e n c y. Guided and repeated oral reading activities are an import a n t means to fluency d eve l o p m e n t. Decoding Skills: Word Identification and Fluency ( c o n t i n u e d ) and responding to texts re q u i re a substantial amount of cognitive re s o u rces; if these re s o u rces are expended in the identification of word s, that is, in decoding, the understanding, interpretation, and critical response to text will suff e r. All major re s e a rch syntheses on the topic of fluency stress the importance of much practice in reading as the vehicle for achieving f l u e n c y. Guided and repeated oral reading activities are an important means to fluency development. Fluency does not develop from isolated w o rd recognition practice and study, but from reading in which word s a re embedded in a meaningful context. Because the evidence supporting the importance of fluency for reading comprehension is so strong, teachers should regularly evaluate students fluency. A re s e a rch-based reading program should pro v i d e many opportunities for teacher-guided reading. Repeated oral re a d i n g activities may be particularly important for students who have not yet achieved fluency. The following quotations support the conclusions drawn in this section: 1985 - Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wi l k i n s o n Phonics instruction is just the first step toward the ultimate goal of fast, accurate word identification and fluent reading. What must occur is that students become so familiar with letter sound associations that words are identified automatically, that is, with little conscious attention. (p. 46) 1990 - Adams M o re generally, repeated reading of text is found to pro d u c e marked i m p rovement in word recognition, fluency, and c o m p rehension. (p. 153) 1991 - Nathan & Stanovich When processes of word recognition take little capacity (are fluent), most of the re a d e r s cognitive capacity can be focused on c o m p rehending the text, criticizing it, elaborating on it, and reflecting on it in short, doing all the things we know good re a d e r s do. Conversely, what happens when word recognition is not fluent? I n e fficient word recognition processes demand excessive cognitive c a p a c i t y, leaving less capacity for comprehension. (p. 176) 45
Thus, nonfluent word recognition results in unre w a rding re a d i n g experiences that lead to less involvement in re a d i n g - related activities. This, of course, starts a cycle of interacting negative consequences. Nonfluent reading leads to less reading. Lack of exposure and practice then leads to a continued failure to develop automatic w o rd recognition." (p. 177) T h rough practice, children develop knowledge of correct spellings of words (often re f e r red to as complete orthographic re p re s e n t a t i o n s ) and spelling-sound correspondences. These form the basis of the c a p a c i t y - f ree recognition the automaticity that is a characteristic of fluent reading. Exposure to print facilitates the information of orthographic codes that enable recognition on a direct, visual basis. (p. 178) 1998 - Snow, Burns, & Griff i t h Adequate pro g ress in learning to read English (or, any alphabetic language) beyond the initial level depends on sufficient practice in reading to achieve fluency with diff e rent texts. (p. 223) Because the ability to obtain meaning from print depends so s t rongly on the development of word recognition accuracy and reading fluency, both should be regularly assessed in the classro o m, permitting timely and effective instructional response when d i fficulty or delay is apparent. (p. 7) 1998 - Stricker, Roser, & Martinez As automaticity in word recognition develops, students read faster and have greater opportunity to gain meaning from the text. Diff i c u l t y in recognizing individual words hampers the ability to gain meaning f rom the text.... As a reader pauses to decode unfamiliar word s, thoughts about the portion of text may be disrupted. Readers also need to make connections between ideas within a text. If re a d i n g p roceeds too slowly, such connections are difficult to make. Thus, accuracy alone is not enough; accurate word recognition must be completed rapidly for fluency to occur. (p. 299) Reading educators and re s e a rchers have also addressed the role that reading material itself plays in fluency development. They have documented the importance of practice in manageable texts, texts 46
that fit the reading level of the student, for the development of reading fluency. Only when readers can read the material with ease do they have opportunity to develop fluency. (p. 304) F u r t h e r m o re, evidence shows that wide reading contributes to p roficient reading, and that direct teaching about aspects of fluency may assist young readers in attending to fluency. (p. 305) 1998 - Hiebert, Pearson, Ta y l o r, Richardson, & Paris For children to become fluent readers who devote their attention to the meaning of texts, many opportunities to read appro p r i a t e l y d i fficult text are needed throughout the primary grades. Topic 4, p. 4) 1999 - Samuels, Shermer, & Reinking In summary, beginning reading is characterized by the need to alternate attention between decoding and comprehension, a slow, laborious process that places a heavy demand on memory. The visual unit used by the beginner in word recognition is small, often as short as a single letter. With practice, the beginning re a d e r becomes fluent. Because in fluent reading decoding re q u i re s significantly less attention and effort, decoding and compre h e n s i o n can occur simultaneously. The visual unit in fluent reading is the whole word, making the process fast and seemingly effortless. (p. 269) 2000 - National Reading Panel Teachers need to know that word recognition accuracy is not the end point of reading instruction. Fluency re p resents a level of expertise beyond word recognition accuracy, and re a d i n g c o m p rehension may be aided by fluency. Skilled readers read word s a c c u r a t e l y, rapidly and eff i c i e n t l y. Children who do not develop reading fluency, no matter how bright they are, will continue to re a d slowly and with great effort. (p. 3-3) 4 7 The analysis of guided reading pro c e d u res led to the conclusion that such pro c e d u res had a consistent, and positive impact on word recognition, fluency, and comprehension as measured by a variety of test instruments and at a range of grade levels." (p. 3-3) Analysis indicated that repeated reading pro c e d u res have a clear impact on the reading ability of non-impaired readers through at least grade 4, as well as on students with various kinds of re a d i n g
p roblems throughout high school. (p. 3-3) Competent reading re q u i res skills that extend beyond the singlew o rd level to contextual reading, and this skill can best be acquire d by practicing reading in which the words are in a meaningful context. (p. 3-11 ) 48