The relationship between different measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension in second-grade students who evidence different oral reading fluency difficulties

Authors

Justin C. Wise, Georgia State University
Rose A. Sevcik, Georgia State University
Robin D. Morris, Georgia State University
Maureen W. Lovett, Hospital for Sick Children University of Toronto
Maryanne Wolf, Tufts University
Melanie Kuhn, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
Beth Meisinger, University of Memphis
Paula Schwanenflugel, University of Georgia

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether different measures of oral reading fluency relate differentially to reading comprehension performance in two samples of second-grade students: (a) students who evidenced difficulties with nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, and oral reading fluency of connected text (ORFD), and (b) students who evidenced difficulties only with oral reading fluency of connected text (CTD). Method: Participants (ORFD, n = 146 and CTD, n = 949) were second-grade students who were recruited for participation in different reading intervention studies. Data analyzed were from measures of nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, oral reading fluency of connected text, and reading comprehension that were collected at the pre-intervention time point. Results: Correlational and path analyses indicated that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension performance in both samples and across average and poor reading comprehension abilities. Conclusion: Results of this study indicate that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension and suggest that real-word oral reading fluency may be an efficient method for identifying potential reading comprehension difficulties. © American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Publication Title

Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools

Recommended Citation

Wise, J., Sevcik, R., Morris, R., Lovett, M., Wolf, M., Kuhn, M., Meisinger, B., & Schwanenflugel, P. (2010). The relationship between different measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension in second-grade students who evidence different oral reading fluency difficulties. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41 (3), 340-348. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2009/08-0093)