Republic of the Philippines

Sorsogon State University

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Sorsogon City

Name: ANDREW G. BIÑAS

Program: MAED - ENGLISH
Subject: Teaching Reading, Literary Appreciation and Writing in
Date: September 11, 2022

Critique Paper on: The Complex Nature in Reading Fluency: A multidimensional View
by Roxanne F. Hudson, Paige C. Pullen, Holly B. Lane, and Joseph K. Torgesen

Elements Involving Reading Fluency Unlocked: A Review

I. Introduction
Reading is the act of processing text in order to derive meaning. Reading
fluency is reading accurately at quick rate, with appropriate prosody (Hudson et.
al, 2002). Reading therefore is a complex process and that it requires certain
sets of skills to achieve fluency. To learn to read, children must develop both
fluent word reading and language comprehension (Gough & Tunmer,1986).
Fluent word reading stems from underlying skills: phonological awareness,
phonics and decoding, and automatic word recognition. To be a fluent reader,
there are elements needed for fluent reading and they are interrelated in a
multilayered fashion.

II. Discussion of Salient Points

Elements of Decoding Fluency
The paper discussed the elements at work in reading fluency: Elements of
Decoding Fluency and Elements of Reading Fluency. Elements of Decoding
fluency involves phonemic awareness, letter knowledge and the larger letter
knowledge. These sub-processes play in explaining the decoding rate and
accuracy in one of Hudson and the group in their study (Hudson, et al., 2006).
The findings indicated that fluency in phonemic blending, letter sounds, and
phonograms are related to each other and to decoding fluency in a complex,
multilayered fashion.
The study of Ecalle et. al., (2020) concluded that there is a high correlation
between the three components of reading ability- phonemic awareness, listening
comprehension and vocabulary and three other associated reading skills –

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 phonemic segmentation and decoding. It also mentioned that if the decoding
process are in efficient, it is pointless train fluency (Encalle et. al., 2020). It
suggests that decoding process and its sub-processes must be mastered first
before one can develop fluency.
Difficulties with fluent word reading can stem from different underlying
causes. Problems with automatic word recognition can contribute to difficulties
with fluency, and in turn, often cause problems with comprehension. Fluent
reading is necessary for comprehension, because attention required for effortful
reading draws resources away from comprehension (Perfetti, 1985)

Reading fluency

Sight word automaticity, decoding fluency, orthographic knowledge and

integration of multiple cues are part or the word-related process as elements of
reading fluency. While meaning-related processes involves reading
comprehension, passage context, vocabulary, and metacognition. Global
process related to reading and decoding fluency involves the global processing
speed. The discussion concluded the effortless, fluent reading is the result of a
large number of sub-processes that must be accomplished efficiently and
automatically (Breznitz, 2006). Because without automatic access to letter-sound
relationships, quick and accurate operation of phonemic analysis and blending
processes, automatic access to knowledge of phonograms, a large number of
words that can be recognized “by sight”, quick access to vocabulary knowledge,
efficient operation of basic processes, reading fluency in reading text will likely
suffer.
Fluency refers to automaticity in all process used while reading(Wolf and
Katzir-Cohen, 2001). Meyer and Melton (1992) concluded that fluency is the
ability to read connected text rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically
with little attention to the mechanics of reading such as decoding (p.284).
Fluency was defined as rate plus accuracy. It is true that accuracy in decoding is
necessary in reading, but it is not a sufficient condition. In order to have both
fluent in reading and good comprehension, student must be brought beyond
accuracy to automaticity in decoding.
Automatic word recognition is central to the construct of fluency and
fluency’s role in the comprehension of text (e.g., Samuels, 2004, 2006).
Automatic word recognition is central to the construct of fluency and fluency’s
role in the comprehension of text (e.g., Samuels, 2004, 2006).
As part of a developmental process of building decoding skills, fluency can
form a bridge to reading comprehension (Pikulski & Chard, 2005). When looking
at reading as a whole, you come to find there are 5 critical components that
come to mind: phonics, phonemic awareness,vocabulary, fluency, and
comprehension. When looking at each one individually, the one that has been
referred to as the “neglected” aspect of reading by the National Reading Panel

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 would be fluency (Pikulski & Chard, 2005). Now, though, fluency is being given
substantial attention not only by researchers, but practitioners.

III. Conclusion (Implications to Learning)

There is no single way of increasing reading fluency. There are multiple
ways by which it can be improve. Therefore, learners must be exposed in these
multifaceted ways to enhance proficiency and fluency in reading. Teachers must
be able to think of different ways to address it. Professional development for pre-
service teachers and in-service teachers needs to focus on ensuring a deep
understanding of both the complex nature of reading fluency (Lane et al., 2009)
and multiple methods to foster it in their students.
Powerful instruction in alphabetic principle and the establishment of
reading accuracy are lain the early foundations of reading fluency. Accurate
reads to be exposed in reading large amount of text to expand their vocabulary
sufficiently. They must be required to read increasingly complex text. Be
encouraged to read for meaning in their early grades, as this will support the
development of vocabulary, knowledge about the world, and the growth of
automatic comprehension processes that they themselves facilitate the growth of
reading fluency.

IV. References

Cunningham, A.E., & Stanovich, K.E. (1998). What readingdoes for the mind.
American Educator, 22(1), 8–15.

Cunningham, P.M. (2000). Phonics they use. New York:Longman.Ehri, L.C.

(1995). Stages of development in learning to readwords by sight. Journal of
Research in Reading, 18,116–12

Jean Ecalle , Emilie Dujardin , Christophe Gomes , Laurent Cros & Annie
Magnan (2020): Decoding, Fluency and Reading Comprehension: Examining the
Nature of Their Relationships in a Large-Scale Study with First Graders, Reading
& Writing Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/10573569.2020.1846007

Samuels, S.J. (2004). Toward a theory of automatic information pro-cessing in

reading, revisited. In R.B. Ruddell & N.J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and
processes (pp. 1127–1148). Newark, DE: International Reading Association

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Perfetti, C.A. (1985). Reading ability. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Updating . . . . . .