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Development of Oral and Silent Reading Fluency and Their Relation with Reading Comprehension in First Through Third Grade Students

Year: 2012
Name of Institution:
University of California, Irvine
Goal: Exploration
Principal Investigator:
Kim, Young-Suk
Award Amount: $1,600,000
Award Period: 4 years (7/01/2012 – 6/31/2016)
Award Number: R305A150589

Description:

Previous Award Number: R305A120147
Previous Awardee: Florida State University

Co-Principal Investigator: Yaacov Petscher

Purpose: Despite the recognized importance of reading fluency for reading comprehension development, research has tended to focus on oral reading fluency with little knowledge of how silent reading fluency develops over time and how to best support children during the transition from oral to silent reading. The goals of this study are to: (1) explore development of oral and silent reading fluency (including reading prosody) and their relation with reading comprehension for first through third grade students; (2) examine whether the relation varies as a function of students' word reading proficiency; (3) document and describe current classroom instruction in oral and silent reading fluency; and (4) identify promising instructional practices for oral and silent reading fluency development.

Project Activities: Four hundred students will be recruited in the first grade to participate in this longitudinal project, and will be followed until the end of third grade. Three times each year (fall, winter, and spring) silent and oral reading fluency, reading prosody, and reading comprehension will be assessed. When students are reading, their eye movements will be measured to assess their fluency, thus allowing researchers to examine both reading rate and moment-to-moment reading behaviors. Reading prosody will be assessed using audio recordings of children's oral reading. Additionally, in each year of the study, researchers will observe and videotape classrooms (Fall, Winter, and Spring) to assess classroom instruction around oral and silent reading fluency.

Products: Products include preliminary evidence of potentially promising instructional oral and silent reading fluency practices. Peer reviewed publications will also be produced.

Structured Abstract

Setting: This study will be conducted in a relatively large school district in north Florida.

Sample: Participants include approximately 400 first grade children. Researchers will follow the children from first to third grade.

Intervention: In this exploratory study, the researchers are examining the development of oral and silent reading fluency and the instructional practices that facilitate this development. The purpose of these efforts is to identify possible targets for intervention at the instructional level. The findings from the proposed study will provide critical information about developing instructional approaches and interventions intended to improve students' reading fluency (both oral and silent modes) and ultimately reading comprehension.

Research Design and Methods: To assess the development of oral and silent reading fluency, researchers will gather student assessment data three times a year (fall, winter, and spring) from grades 1–3 (a total of 9 waves of data collection) on oral language skills, word reading proficiency, oral and silent reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Researchers will utilize eye-tracking technology to accurately measure moment-to-moment reading behaviors as well as each child's reading rate during oral and silent reading. To examine the classroom instructional behaviors associated with the development of oral and silent reading fluency, researchers will gather classroom observation data three times per year (fall, winter, and spring) from grades 1–3. Observation data will include field notes, videotaping, and an observation coding system.

Control Condition: Due to the nature of the research design, there is no control condition.

Key Measures: Researchers will assess students' language and literacy skills in reading comprehension, oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, and oral language skills. Oral and silent reading fluency will be assessed using the Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) and the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC). Both the FAIR and the TOSREC will be administered as both an oral and a silent reading task. Children's eye movement during oral and silent reading will be recorded using eye-tracking technology. This technology uses a laptop and desk mounted version of the EyeLink 2k monitoring system. The EyeLink 2k system will allow researchers to measure the number of words read as well as the duration of first fixation, gaze duration, total viewing time, and fixation probability. This technology will also allow the research team to compare these measures for oral and silent reading tasks. Additionally, participants' oral reading will be recorded in order to analyze features of reading prosody, such as the number and duration of pauses while reading, and the change in pitch while reading. For classroom observations, researchers will use a researcher-developed observation coding system. The primary outcome variable of interest in this study, reading comprehension, will be assessed with the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Comprehension subtest, the Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation Passage Comprehension subtest, and the Woodcock-Johnson-III Passage Comprehension subtest.

Data Analytic Strategy: A variety of analytic methods will be used to examine the data for this study. Researchers will be using structural equation modeling (SEM) as the primary analytical strategy. Specifically, the researchers will use a multiple indicator growth model to assess the development of silent and oral reading fluency, reading prosody, and reading comprehension across nine time points from first to third grade. The associations between these trajectories and possible moderators will also be analyzed using multiple indicator growth models. To assess the dimensionality of prosody, researchers will use exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, the variation in word reading accuracy between skilled and less-skilled readers will be assessed using measure invariance modeling in SEM.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Gilbert, J., Petscher, Y., Compton, D. L., and Schatschneider, C. (2016). Consequences of Misspecifying Levels of Variance in Cross-Classified Longitudinal Data Structures. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.

Kim, Y.G. (2015). Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(4): 459–481.

Kim, Y.S.G., Petscher, Y., and Vorstius, C. (2019). Unpacking Eye Movements During Oral and Silent Reading and Their Relations to Reading Proficiency in Beginning Readers. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 58, 102-120.

Kim, Y.S.G., Vorstius, C., and Radach, R. (2018). Does Online Comprehension Monitoring Make a Unique Contribution to Reading Comprehension in Beginning Readers? Evidence From Eye Movements. Scientific Studies of Reading, 22(5), 367-383.

Kim, Y. S. G., and Wagner, R. K. (2015). Text (Oral) Reading Fluency as a Construct in Reading Development: An Investigation of Its Mediating Role for Children from Grades 1 to 4. Scientific Studies of Reading, 19(3): 224–242.

Petscher, Y., Quinn, J. M., and Wagner, R. K. (2016). Modeling the Co-Development of Correlated Processes with Longitudinal and Cross-Construct Effects. Developmental Psychology, 52(11): 1690–1704.

Wawire, B A., and Kim, Y.S.G. (2018). Cross-Language Transfer of Phonological Awareness and Letter Knowledge: Causal Evidence and Nature of Transfer. Scientific Studies of Reading, 22(6), 443-461.