Creating an Instructional Context to Recognize Brilliance: Fundamental Considerations About Oral Reading Fluency for High School Educators

• In Event: "Just Sayin'": The Complexity and Utility of "Nonstandardized" Language Practices Among Multilingual and Multidialectal Youth

Abstract

Coinciding with the theme of youth discourses, I call attention to the role of linguistically diverse adolescent voices in classrooms through the lens of oral reading fluency. Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, and Jenkins (2001, p. 239) define oral reading fluency as the “oral translation of texts with speed and accuracy.” In my work with high school teachers, who educate monolingual and bilingual speakers of non-dominant varieties of English, they frequently share the belief that oral reading fluency is a necessary precursor to comprehension (e.g., Author, 2015). This practitioner-focused paper is motivated by these explanations of reading development. I examine what the research actually says about oral reading fluency for high school students. Then, I discuss the implications of this review for the education of linguistically diverse students.

In order to review the existing research base, I conducted a systematic examination of peer-reviewed studies, which had been published in the past 20 years, about the relationship between oral reading fluency and text comprehension in high school students (e.g., Rasinski, Padak, McKeon, Wilfong, Friedauer, & Heim, 2004). As a result of this review, I identified the following patterns in this literature: (1) There is a limited research base about this topic as it relates to high school students; (2) The primary methodology quantitatively examines the relationship between student performance on assessments of oral reading fluency and assessments of reading comprehension; (3) The findings of this research do not indicate that oral reading fluency is a precursor to comprehension. However, they do identify relationships between scores on measures of oral reading fluency and measures of reading comprehension.

Existing research does not support the idea that a high school student needs to read aloud with “appropriate” speed and accuracy as a precursor to comprehension. While oral reading fluency is among the most visible aspects of certain kinds of reading, it is not necessarily an indication of whether a student can or does understand a text. Given the limited state of existing research about oral reading fluency and high school students, I argue that it is important for teachers of this demographic to take into account other factors that are important for comprehending texts (e.g., background knowledge, comprehension strategies). Moreover, I contend that teachers should be aware of the possible dangers that this focus on oral reading fluency could pose for linguistically diverse adolescents. For example, teachers may interpret students whose pronunciation does not reflect standard monolingual norms as exhibiting a lack of accuracy. An overt focus on how these students voice the text, rather than on what they are able to comprehend, may hinder teachers’ abilities to recognize and develop other essential reading practices.

Author

• Maneka Deanna Brooks, Texas State University