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Examining the relations between reading fluency and reading comprehension for english language learners
Author(s) -
Quirk Matthew,
Beem Sofie
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/pits.21616
Subject(s) - fluency , reading comprehension , psychology , comprehension , reading (process) , mathematics education , linguistics , philosophy
This study examined the relations between reading fluency and comprehension among elementary school students ( N = 171) in Grades 2, 3, and 5, all of whom were designated as English language learners (ELL) at some point in their educational careers. Although the overall relation between reading fluency and comprehension ( r = .56) was consistent with previous research using non‐ELL student samples, results also revealed a substantial number of students (55.5%) who exhibited a significant gap ( SD , 0.67 ) between their scores on reading fluency and comprehension assessments. In addition, the prevalence of students with fluency/comprehension gaps varied significantly across grade and English language proficiency levels. The results suggested that, although reading fluency and comprehension are significantly related for ELL students, practitioners should be cautious when making identification and instructional decisions for ELL students based solely on oral reading fluency data. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.