[Reading-hall-of-fame] what is fluency?

Thu Nov 19 05:05:10 GMT 2009

Dear Colleagues,

I find that all this recent emphasis on fluency, either in the reading or
writing domain, interesting because it reminds me that what' hot and what's
not in reading is like clothing fashion, highly changeable.  There was a
time not all that long ago when fluency was so dead that many texts on
reading did not even list the term in the book's index. What changed the
status of fluency as a topic was that several scholars began to emphasize
its role and the Laberge-Samuels' theoretical model of automatic information
processing and Samuels' article on repeated reading as well as the final
report of the National Reading Panel that gave fluency equal status with
word recognition and comprehension all contributed to its recent popularity.

  While there seems to be consensus on how fluency develops, how to define
fluency and how to measure it is a mess.  I have repeatedly stated that
accuaracy of response, speed of oral reading [I call it speed of barking at
print], and prosody [We can read meaningless jabberwocky with expression]
are all nothing more than indicators. The real test of fluency is the
ability to do two complex things at the same time. If a person can do two
complex activities at the same time than at least one of them is automatic.
My test for fluency is the ability to decode and comprehend at the same
time. There is a simple way to test for fluency using this definition.  Ask
the student to read orally with these instructions. "Read this out loud and
as soon as you are done I will ask you questions to see how well you
understood what you read."  k

There are other ways to test for fluency that are more complex.  In several
studies I have found that for non fluent readers  the size of the visual
unit used in  word  recognition is smaller than the whole word. In fact,
this supports Gough's contention that word recognition is unit by unit.  On
the other hand, the size of the visual unit used by fluent readers is the
whole word. We have replicated these findings in the Chinese language where
the words are characterized not by letters but by the number of strokes used
in the word. Non fluent readers are recognizing the words using a stroke by
stroke process while fluent readers are recognizing the words as holistic
units. 

Can we apply the same principle of fluency to writing in which two complex
things get done at the same time?  I think we can! When I write on my
computer as I am doing right now, I have to keyboard and know which letters
to strike on the key board while at the same time I have to think about what
I want to say. I often ask my students how many would like to use a computer
when taking an essay exam and how many would prefer to use pen on paper.
Those who want to use a pen are those who are not yet automatic at computer
keyboarding.  For many students, writing of any kind demands to much of
their attentional resources that they cannot write and think at the same
time. 

One last point. If you are wondering how can decoding and comprehension be
done simultaneously? I pondered this question, too. Shouldn't the decoding
process go first and then comprehension would follow?  I recently have
gotten into the eye movement literature and realize that during a very brief
eye fixation  the two processes -word recognition and comprehension= take
place during that single fixation pause that lasts typically only for 1/3 of
a second.  

Does it really matter which definition of fluency one chooses?  I think it
matters a great deal because the definition one chooses leads to how one
tests and measures it. If you opt for speed as your criterion, then you test
for fluency using some measure of speed, but if you opt for simultaneous
decoding and comprehension then you search for a different way to test that
involves both tasks at the same time. Jay samuels  

From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
William Teale
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:53 PM
To: HOFLists
Subject: Re: [Reading-hall-of-fame] what is fluency?

One of my doc students did a very interesting study of writing fluency a few
years ago:

Hester, J. L. (2001).
<http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=728125641&SrchMode=2&sid=1&Fmt=2
&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1258570205&clientId=8224>
Investigating writing fluency in seventh and eighth graders' narrative and
expository first drafts.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago. 

-----------------------------------------

William H. Teale

Early Reading First

University of Illinois at Chicago

1640 West Roosevelt

Chicago, IL 60608

312.413.1423

wteale at uic.edu

http://www.uic.edu/educ/erf/ 

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On Nov 18, 2009, at 12:25 PM, Arthur N Applebee wrote:

Jim's comment on fluency in the writing literature is interesting.  In
six traits, which is a step child of Paul Diederich's (1961) work at
ETS, "sentence fluency" reflects what Diederich called "wording" and
"phrasing"-- the choice and arrangement of words. Diederich thought this
was at least in part a vocabulary factor in the original study.

In the more general writing literature, fluency seems closer to "ease"
or "speed" of writing when dealing with familiar material, more closely
related to process than product. I don't know of any work that has
thought closely about the distinction, or how the two version of fluency
are related.. Or how either is related to the version of fluency
implicit in saying that someone is "fluent in English."    

Arthur N. Applebee
Distinguished Professor & Chair, Department of Educational Theory &
Practice
Director, Center on English Learning & Achievement

-----Original Message-----
From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf
Of Robert Calfee
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:55 PM
To: HOFLists
Subject: Fwd: Re: Fwd: RE: [Reading-hall-of-fame] what is fluency?

Let's see if this works -- I haven't participated that much, but two
topics, one on NRC and the other on HOF, attracted  my attention. Sorry
for the confusions. 

And let me second Jim's comment on fluency in reading and writing -- the
parallels seem worth applauding. If speed is an important factor in the
writing process, it's probably knowing when to speed up and when to slow
down -- and the time frame is not the start-finish writing of a passage,
but the allocation of time to various aspects of the process, from
planning to the completion of a text. The fluency (or fluidity) of the
final product, which Jim emphasizes, is a totally different matter. Both
merit attention, and I don't think there is much of a literature,
conceptual or empirical, on either. Arthur A might know?  Bob Calfee

Robert Calfee
1207 Sproul Hall
Graduate School of Education
University of California
Riverside CA 92521 Fax 951-827-3942
Stanford School of Education
Stanford CA 94305
Home P/F 650-561-4665 Cell 650-833-9434
995 Wing Pl Stanford 94305
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