CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents the related literature and studies as well as its

conceptual framework after thorough and in-depth search done by the

researchers.

Related literature

As stated by Álvarez-Cañizo et al. (2015); Elhassan et al. (2015), reading

fluency is defined as the ability to read rapidly, accurately, and with the proper

expression, and includes three main components, reading rapidity, accuracy, and

prosody. Although all three components play an important role for school

achievement, the first two ones (i.e., rapidity and accuracy) are most commonly

assessed, in both educational and clinical contexts.

However, reading fluency has been ignored in studies especially in higher

grade levels regarding rapidity and accuracy. But reading fluency is an important

topic area that has longstanding interests, and it is currently receiving

considerable attention. This makes reading fluency a debatable aspect. Ari,

(2015); Elhassan et al., (2015)

 Likewise, there are still disagreements on whether the magnitude of the

connection between reading fluency and high-stakes assessment scores drops

across years or, instead, whether reading fluency is a key for successful school

achievement. Thus, this debate is still far from being solved, because the few

studies conducted on this topic have led to different results, ignoring the

differences existing between languages (i.e., depth of orthography) and school

system (i.e., school grades to measure students' outcomes). Nese et al., (2013)

However, as emphasized by Bigozzi et al., (2016), in languages with low

orthography, such as Italian, reading accuracy is reached quickly, making this

parameter a less important reference of reading proficiency and school outcomes

than reading fluency. Thus, when assessing reading fluency, it is important to

clearly distinguish the contribution of accuracy from that of rapidity.

In connection to this aspect, according to Álvarez-Cañizo et al., (2015),

reading fluency and comprehension are closely related, and also has

connections with important aspects of academic life, such as school outcomes.

Which to this day makes reading fluency a key aspect of comprehension

because of their connections with one another.

However, many teachers prioritize on reading comprehension, ignoring the

ability of students to read fluently, the influence of which is believed to reflect on

school outcomes. But this assumption has recently been discussed, and the

importance of reading fluency in adolescence to be re-evaluated. Ricketts et al.,

(2014); Zoccolotti et al., (2014)

 However, although several studies suggest that reading fluency influences

the reading comprehension process, results shows that the contribution of

reading comprehension to school marks is mostly direct. More importantly, the

role played by reading fluency confirms that effortless and automatic reading

fluency frees up important cognitive resources for the comprehension activity, a

high-level and demanding process. Nese et al., (2013)

Related Studies

International Studies

According to the study conducted on the University of Florence, Italy,

Rasinski (2014) stated that reading fluency is made up of two distinct

components at two ends of the reading spectrum – automaticity in word

recognition and prosody or expression in oral reading that reflects the meaning of

the text. In a sense, reading fluency is the essential link between word

recognition at one end of the spectrum and reading comprehension at the other.

In connection, one side of oral fluency is prosody. Prosody is a linguistic

term that refers to the expressive or melodic aspects of oral language and

reading. “When I think about someone who is a fluent speaker or reader, it’s not

someone who speaks or reads fast, but someone who uses her or his voice to

convey and enhance the meaning of their speech or text”. Rasinski (2019)

Thus, prosody is fluency’s connection to meaning or comprehension. In

order to read something with the right expression that reflects the author’s

purpose and meaning, the reader must have some level of comprehension of the

passage
itself. Rasinski (2014)

However, there are no studies on the progression of prosody during

secondary school. But some authors have focused on the relationship between

reading prosody and reading comprehension in various populations including

secondary-school students. Some talk of prosody as a bridge between reading

fluency and reading comprehension, as good readers rely on prosody to

understand texts. Basaran (2013); Kokaarslan (2019)

What’s more, Paige, Rasinski, Magpuri-Lavell & Smith (2014) found that

silent reading comprehension by English ninth-graders was connected with

prosodic reading.

Likewise, similar results were found by Breen, Kaswer, Van Dyke,

Krivokapić and Landi (2016) with English students aged 14 to 19 years. They

found that students with good comprehension made more pitch variations

according to the syntactic structure of the sentences. Moreover, their results

showed that students with great comprehension also signaled boundaries with

longer durations, thus demonstrating better phrasing skill along with their better

ability to assign linguistic constituent structure.

Hence, pauses and pitch variations can be considered the main prosodic

features influencing reading comprehension. In connection to pauses, some

studies have argued that the satisfactory collocation of pauses when reading

(i.e. correct phrasing) is essential for reading comprehension, since it works as a

predictor of text structure. Paige et al., (2017); Veenendaal et al., (2014)

 Moreover, another part of reading fluency is automaticity, as stated by

Rasinski (2014), automaticity in word recognition refers to the ability to recognize

or decode words not just accurately, but also automatically or effortlessly.

Automatic word recognition takes phonics to the next level. Automatic readers

not only recognize words accurately, they do it with minimal employment of their

cognitive resources. Attention expended for one task cannot be applied to

another, it is used up. And so, when readers have to use excessive amount of

their cognitive energy for word recognition, even if they are able to decode the

words accurately, they have reduced the amount of cognitive energy available for

comprehension and thus, their comprehension fails.

In conclusion, as said by Rasinski, “our goal in word instruction needs to go

beyond accurate recognition and understanding of words”. Automatic and

accurate instruction is the appropriate goal, and when students achieve this goal

their reading comprehension is bound to improve. Thus, in order to improve our

understanding and knowledge, automaticity and prosody are required for these

are key components of reading fluency.

Local Studies

According to the study conducted in the University of Science and

Technology of Southern Philippines, oral fluency is one the most important

markers of proficiency in second language but undeniably it is a neglected

component in a communicative classroom. The greatest achievement of a

learner is to be proficient in a language as communication is part of everyday life.

Language is more than an external expression; it is also an exchange of internal

thoughts through formulated expression ranging from independent verbalization

to non-verbalization. Language is essentially a means of communication among

the members of a society. Indeed, it is through language that people understand

each other in a social interaction. Sirbu (2015)

As emphasized by Ong (2017), in a country like the Philippines, which

aims to participate meaningfully in international affairs, learning the English

language has a special place. Alongside Filipino, English is used as an official

language mainly in publications, media and the academic domain. Knowing the

language increases people’s chances of getting a good job.

However, according to Ella (2018), learning a language is a complex task

as it involves several imperative processes. It requires not only learning grammar

structures and acquiring vocabulary but also developing communication skills.

Yet, Oberg (2013) strongly believes that oral fluency can be taught by

means of providing communicative activities. Hence, the researcher in this study

looked into classrooms and sought to find out the communicative competence

level of the college students in a Local Community College.

Hence, the teachers’ intervention methods in emphasizing oral fluency

were considered highly significant in developing students’ speaking skills.

Majority of the students today fail to express their ideas, thoughts and emotions

verbally to particular events or situations. Consequently, speaking skills and

vocabulary learning have become worse and have greatly deteriorated.

Theoretical framework

Theory of Automatic Information

The LaBerge and Samuels (1974) theory of automatic information

processing suggests that fluent readers are able to understand words without

attention to decoding. That ability frees attention for the crucial task of

comprehension.

This theory comes from the word automatic, which means a person's

ability to recognize and process information with fewer efforts. According to

Samuels, automaticity theory has been used in reading fluency to determine the

ability of a student to look at words and read them without thinking.

Automaticity refers to the ability to perform complex skills with little

attention and conscious effort. Automaticity is important for higher‐order thinking,

such as skilled reading and writing, because important sub‐skills must be

performed accurately, quickly, and effortlessly.

Attention is made up of two components; internal attention and external

attention. External attention is related to a reader's attempt, through the senses

(ears, eyes) to gather information and is directly observable. Internal attention is

more difficult to define and is not directly observable, but has three major

characteristics: Alertness, Selectivity and limited capacity. It has been described

as the ability to take in several parts of a conversation at once without an

outward appearance of doing so. LaBerge & Samuels (1974)

Schema Theory

Schema Theory (1932) by Frederic Barlett states that comprehending a

text is an interactive process between the reader's prior knowledge and the text.

Efficient comprehension requires the ability to connect the textual material to

one's own knowledge.

Bartlett found out that memory was not a perfect system; he stated that

when people were trying to remember things, they would remember them in a

way that was specific to them, which may not necessarily be the same as other

people.

He argued that memory was not like a device that records and when

someone remembered something, either a piece of information or an event, for

example, that the way in which they did this was not always accurate.

These theories are relevant to the study for the reason that the

Automaticity Theory emphasizes how having oral reading fluency helps students

understand more about what they read effortlessly because automaticity is a key

component of oral reading fluency and how the Schema Theory supports the

Automaticity Theory since oral reading fluency is needed for better

comprehension since oral reading fluency helps improve or broaden our prior

knowledge

Therefore, the Automaticity Theory and the Schema Theory will help guide

the researchers to a better understanding on the benefits of promoting oral

reading fluency on the comprehension of senior high students of St. Joseph High

School of Dagami Inc. S.Y. 2022-2023.

Conceptual framework

This study revolves around two variables, oral reading fluency and

comprehension. This shows the input-process-output model of the study. The

input contains the profile of the respondents according to name, age, grade level,

and sex. The process used for this study is the survey questionnaire, while the

output shows the result of the study.

The model below shows that by the use of survey questionnaire as a

medium, the researcher finds that there are significant benefits of promoting oral

reading fluency to improve the comprehension of senior high students with the

profile of the respondents according to their name, age, sex, and grade level.

Therefore, this study will examine the benefits of promoting oral reading

fluency to improve the comprehension of senior high students coming from St.

Joseph High School of Dagami Inc., S.Y. 2022-2023.

Hypothesis

There are significant benefits of promoting oral reading fluency to improve

the comprehension of senior high students.

 INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Profile of the
There are
respondent
significant benefits
according to:
of promoting oral
1. Name Survey reading fluency to
Questionnaire improve the
2. Age comprehension of
3. Sex senior high
students.
4. Grade Level

Figure 1. A conceptual framework of the study.

Definition of terms

Oral Reading Fluency. According to Cambridge English Dictionary, is known as

the ability to read rapidly, accurately, and with the proper expression.

In this study, it refers to the ability of student to read the text fluently or

properly.

Comprehension. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, is the act or action

of grasping with the intellect or the capacity for understanding fluently.

In this study, it refers to the ability of students to understand what they

read properly.

Automaticity. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, is the action that are

done spontaneously or unconsciously. In reading, it is the ability to recognize or

decode words not just accurately, but also automatically or effortlessly.

In this study, it refers to the ability of students to understand words inside

their head automatically with no effort while reading.

Prosody. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, is the patterns of stress

and intonation in a language.

In this study, it refers to the expressions shown by the readers while

reading

Rapidity. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, is the quality of reacting

with great speed.

 In this study, it refers to the ability of students to read quickly.

Accuracy. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, the quality or state of

being correct or precise while reading.

In this study, it refers to the ability of students to understand what they are

reading precisely.
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