[Reading-hall-of-fame] Dissolving fluency into useful parts

[braunc at ucalgary.ca]

> Dear Jay et al:
>
> I think Jay's comment is helpful in dissolving the notion of "fluency"
> into components that, unlike fluency, are relevant to reading, namely,
> "decoding and comprehending at the same time".  But distinguishing
> decoding and comprehension is somewhat puzzling to me and perhaps
> requires
> that we "caliberate our instruments", i.e., adopt a common vocabulary.
> Decoding to me is recognizing a word and that implies that we understand
> the word; we know it is a word we know.  But that sounds a lot like
> comprehension.  In fact, understanding and comprehending are synonyms.
> But if we allow "comprehension" to mean something like sentence or text
> comprehension, then Jay can have his two factors at the same time,
> understanding the words and linking the word into a comprehensible text.
> I would agree that this is critical to competent reading.  Can you, Jay,
> live with that?
>
> I would hope, thereby, that we have eliminated the necessity for talking
> about "fluency" except in Arthur  Appleee's sense of "fluency in
> English",
> said informally of a second language learner.  Fluency as a direct
> indication of reading competence is dangerous as many have implied in
> that
> it legitimizes the use of such tests as the Dibels.  The danger of Dibels
> is that if it is accepted as a legitimate measure of reading, pedagogical
> efforts will be directed to performing well on such tests at the expense
> of actual reading.  So would it not be better to just say that fluency is
> an oversimplified and misleading indication of reading competence?
>
> David Olson

Dear David et al:

I won't apologize for the length of my contribution both rather suggest
that you pour yourself a cup of strong coffee, or perhaps if so inclined,
a double scotch.

Cheers,

Carl Braun
>
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