The Importance of Fluency and Automaticity for Efficient Reading

The Importance of Fluency and Automaticity for Efficient Reading

The Importance of Automaticity and Fluency For Efficient Reading Comprehension

by Pamela E. Hook and Sandra D. Jones

Reprinted with permission from the International Dyslexia Association quarterly newsletter, Perspectives, Winter, 2002, vol. 28, no. 1, pages 9-14. IDA website: http://www.interdys.org.

My abridgement:
What are the relationships among phonemic awareness, phonics and orthographic reading?

 The importance of background knowledge for comprehension also increases. Fluent reading at this point is essential.
Automatic reading involves the development of strong orthographic representations, which allows fast and accurate identification of whole words made up of specific letter patterns. English orthography is generally alphabetic in nature and initially word identification is based on the application of phonic word attack strategies (letter-sound association). These word attack strategies are in turn based on the development of phonemic awareness, which is necessary to learn how to map speech to print. It is important to keep in mind that prior to the stage where children read orthographically, they apply alphabetic strategies to analyze words (Frith, 1985).


Figure 1: Relationships Among Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Word Recognition Skills.
Figure 1 illustrates the relationships among the processes involved in word identification. The bottom of the figure depicts a strong base in phonemic awareness upon which word identification skills are built. There is, however, a reciprocal relationship between the development of phonemic awareness and the development of phonic word attack strategies. As the child becomes more familiar with letters, phonemic awareness also improves. Ultimately, strong underlying orthographic patterns begin to emerge.
WORD LEVEL-AUTOMATICITY
How do we develop this automatic, orthographic reading ability in our students?
In the beginning - the six syllable types
One of the most powerful tools to begin instruction in this area is using the visual patterns inherent in the six syllable types (Steere, Peck and Kahn, 1988.) (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Six Syllable Types 1. closed -not (closed in by a consonant - vowel makes its short sound. 2. open - no (ends in a vowel - vowel makes its long sound 3. silent e - note (ends in vowel consonant e - vowel makes its long sound 4. Vowel combination - nail (the two vowels together make a sound) 5. r controlled - bird (contains a vowel plus 4 - vowel sound is changed) 6. consonant- l -e - table (at the end of a word)

It is these letter (orthographic) patterns that signal vowel pronunciation.  Anna Gillingham when she incorporated the Phonetic Word Cards activity into the Orton-Gillingham lesson plan (Gillingham and Stillman, 1997). This activity involves having the student practice reading words (and some nonwords) on cards as wholes beginning with simple syllables and moving systematically through the syllable types to complex syllables and two-syllable words. The words are divided into groups that correspond to the specific sequence of skills being taught.
Accent
In addition to acquiring phonic word attack strategies, prosodic features at the word level such as stress on syllables are important. At times, poor readers can accurately decode a word but true recognition of the word eludes them because they have not correctly accented one of the syllables. Dyslexic students often have difficulty hearing the accented syllables in a word, so teachers should first determine if a student is able to discriminate and identify through listening alone. If a student cannot hear differences, lessons should begin with listening practice and then move to oral production. Visual and tactile/kinesthetic strategies can be incorporated with listening if necessary.
A teacher can begin to practice listening for and producing accented syllables using the alphabet. The alphabet is presented in pairs and one letter of the pair is accented until a student is successful. The teacher begins presenting the accent only on the first letter until the student is consistent and then presents the accent only on the second letter. When a student can do both of these successfully, the teacher can then present mixed pairs to practice (e.g., A'B C'D EF or GH' IJ' KL' or M'N O P' Q'R). Instruction should move as quickly as possible from using the alphabet to using real words. The teacher can begin with names to practice listening for accented syllables (e.g., Court' ney, Michelle', Ty ler, Je sus').
Training and Linking the Orthographic Processor
Although most students learn to apply the rules of phonic word attack strategies and later of prefix, stem, and suffix through multisensory, structured systematic teaching techniques and become quite accurate in their reading, many remain slow and laborious. They have trouble moving to the next level of automatic orthographic reading and thus comprehension suffers.
Approaches have been developed that use a variety of repeated reading strategies to strengthen these orthographic images. The automatic recognition of single graphemes is a critical first step to the development of the letter patterns that make up words or word parts (Adams, 1990). English orthography is made up of four basic kinds of words: 1) regular for reading and spelling (e.g., mat, sprint; 2) regular for reading but not for spelling (e.g. boat, rain - could be spelled "bote" or "rane" respectively); 3) rule based (e.g., planning - doubling rule, baking - drop e rule); and 4) irregular (e.g. beauty - it should be noted that most parts of an "irregular" word are actually regular and only the irregular part needs to be specifically addressed).
Students must learn to recognize all four types of words automatically in order to be effective readers; thus, techniques for developing strong orthographic representations for all types of words are essential. Extensive opportunity for repeated practice in pattern recognition is often necessary.  Other ways of emphasizing orthography would be card sorts where students sort different syllable types into appropriate categories as quickly as possible and then say the vowel sounds of each syllable type as quickly as possible.
Single word level word drills - regular and irregular words
Once these orthographic signals have become automatically recognized, the students complete speed drills in which they read lists of isolated words with contrasting vowel sounds that are signalled by the syllable type. For example, six to eight closed syllable and vowel-consonant-e words containing the vowel a are arranged randomly on pages containing about 12 lines and read for one minute. Individual goals are established and charts are kept of the number of words read correctly in successive sessions. The same word lists are repeated in sessions until the goal has been achieved for several sessions in a row. When selecting words for these word lists, the use of high-frequency words within a syllable category would increase the likelihood of generalization to text reading
These same kinds of speed drills can be used for irregular words as well as multisyllable words that incorporate higher-level concepts of structural analysis (prefix, stem, and suffix). At the multi-syllable level, automatically recognizing both the visual patterns related to syllable division as well as prefixes, stems, and suffixes (larger chunks) can be very helpful.  The SPIRE program contains speed drills that at first mark these syllable breaks as well as prefixes and suffixes and then fade the cues as the student progresses through the skill.

Not only do good readers read fluently with adequate speed, but when they read aloud, they also use appropriate phrasing, intonation, and their oral reading mirrors their spoken language.

Air writing - development of symbol imagery
 Sky writing, which involves using gross motor movements of the whole arm to form letters in the air, has also been used to help reinforce single letter formation by combining visual, auditory and tactile-kinesthetic cues. More recently an air writing technique has been included as a component of a program intended to improve symbol imagery, or the formation of orthographic representations (i.e., Seeing Stars Nanci Bell, 1997). This technique involves having the student look at a word or word part pronounced by the teacher, name the letters, and then use his finger to write the word in the air directly in his visual field while looking at his finger. The student then reads the word from memory and the teacher questions him about the order and placement of specific letters in the word (e.g., "What is the third letter in the syllable?" "What is the second letter?" etc.). The emphasis here is on enhancing the students' ability to "see" the letter patterns in their minds.

TEXT LEVEL - FLUENCY

The lack of fluency in poor readers is evidenced by their slow, halting, and inconsistent rate; poor phrasing; and inadequate intonation patterns. Not only do good readers read fluently with adequate speed, but when they read aloud, they also use appropriate phrasing, intonation, and their oral reading mirrors their spoken language.
Fluency training helps a student to connect the prosody of spoken language to the prosodic features of text that are signalled through punctuation. There are features present in spoken language that provide clues to a speaker's intent such as gestures, facial expression, intonation, and stress that are not present in printed text. The absence of these prosodic features in text inhibits some readers from chunking words (grouping by semantic and syntactic features) into meaningful units. Just as we teach students to make sound-symbol correspondence during decoding instruction, we also must teach readers to map the prosodic features of spoken language onto the printed text. Structured and systematic instruction in this area will facilitate spoken-to-print prosodic correspondences and enhance comprehension.
Intonation/Punctuation
To begin to develop awareness of the prosodic features of language, teachers can introduce a short three-word sentence with each of the three different words underlined for stress (e.g. He is sick. He is sick. He is sick. The teacher can then model the three sentences while discussing the possible meaning for each variation. The students can practice reading them with different stress until they are fluent. These simple three-word sentences can be modified and expanded to include various verbs, pronouns, and tenses. (e.g. You are sick. I am sick. They are sick.)
This strategy can also be used while increasing the length of phrases and emphasizing the different meanings (e.g. Get out of bed. Get out of bed. Get out of bed now. ) Teachers can also practice fluency with common phrases that frequently occur in text. Prepositional phrases are good syntactic structures for this type of work (e.g. on the _____, in the _____, over the ________etc.).
Teachers can pair these printed phrases to oral intonational patterns that include variations of rate, intensity, and pitch. Students can infer the intended meaning as the teacher presents different prosodic variations of a sentence. For example, when speakers want to stress a concept they often slow their rate of speech and may speak in a louder voice (e.g. Joshua, get-out-of-bed-NOW!). Often, the only text marker for this sentence will be the exclamation point (!) but the speaker's intent will affect the manner in which it is delivered. Practicing oral variations and then mapping the prosodic features onto the text will assist students in making the connection when reading.
This strategy can also be used to alert students to the prosodic features present in punctuation marks. In the early stages using the alphabet helps to focus a student on the punctuation marks without having to deal with meaning. The teacher models for the students and then has them practice the combinations using the correct intonational patterns to fit the punctuation mark (e.g., ABC. DE? FGH! IJKL? or ABCD! EFGHI? KL.)


Short phrases with familiar words can be introduced through chunking machines. A chunking machine is a tachistoscope that allows a student to pull the reformatted or chunked text through the window to increase speed of recognition. (See Figure 4 for an example of a chunking machine.)
Scooping
The incorporation of a multisensory component of scooping under syntactic chunks may benefit some students as they read at the text level, where the appropriate application of intonation and stress in conjunction with speed and accuracy are considered primary. The following is a suggested progression for repeated readings of a paragraph that incorporates systematic work at the phrase and sentence levels:
Developing Anticipatory Set
As noted above, in addition to repeated readings and other sorts of speeded practice, it has been suggested that fluency is enhanced by being able to anticipate what is to come in the text, which in turn enhances comprehension.

Summary

Effective reading comprehension requires not only accurate reading skills but also automatic and fluent reading ability. Many struggling readers have difficulty moving to a level of automaticity and fluency that allows them to easily comprehend what they are reading. We have discussed the underlying processes involved in developing fluent reading as well as suggested some techniques for improving fluency. Research in the area of developing accurate decoding has consistently indicated that a systematic code based approach is important for teaching beginning reading skills. The best techniques for developing fluency, however, have not yet been clearly established. The suggestions here are based on clinical experience and more systematic research is needed to determine which methods or their components will be the most efficient.
References
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Additional Resources
Carreker, S. (1999). Teaching reading: Accurate decoding and fluency. In J.R. Birsh (Ed.), Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. Baltimore, MD: P.H. Brookes.
Honig, B., Diamond, L., and Gutlohn, L. (2000). Teaching reading: Sourcebook for kindergarten through eighth grade. Novato, CA: Arena Press.
Pamela E. Hook, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, a graduate-level training program in speech-language pathology and reading. Her research interests include the relationship between oral and written language, auditory processing and nonverbal learning disabilities. She has been a consultant to schools, designing language arts curriculum, training teachers, and working with parents. She also designs computer software to teach phonemic awareness and reading skills.

Sandra D. Jones, Ph.D. is the Program Coordinator for the Hanson Initiative for Language and Literacy (HILL), a whole school model for professional development, research and educational outreach that is affiliated with the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She has conducted research in the areas of auditory, visual, and cognitive intervention strategies for dyslexic students. She has been a consultant to schools in the areas of literacy, learning disabilities, behavior management, technology, strategic planning and group facilitation techniques, and policy.