Improving reading fluency: a literature review and an empirical study

Abstract

In a modern society it is important to know how to read since reading is an essential part of almost every aspect of daily life. Despite increased literacy in Western Europe the last decades many children never become fluent readers. Article 1 starts with a brief introduction of the concept of reading fluency and an explanation of two theories of the establishment of fluent reading. The main purpose is to account for different forms of oral repeated reading (RR) interventions, both in traditional reading literature and in behavior analysis, and discuss their effects on reading fluency with regard to evidence-based practice (EBP). Besides, it is accounted for quality indicators and standards to identify EBP. Directions for future researches with respect to EBP are discussed. The purpose of the study reported in Article 2, was to implement a high quality study based on quality indicators, proposed by Horner et al. (2005)1, by using a delayed multiple probe design across participants to evaluate the effects of a multicomponent intervention on reading fluency in three adult Norwegian slow reading students. Ten passages were trained during the intervention which consisted of a reading support, performance criterion, response prompts, RR, performance feedback, and error correction. The procedure was based on a study by Lokke, Lokke, and Arntzen (2009)2. Following the intervention, baseline passages were represented to evaluate generalization to untrained passages. Besides, other reading aspects were tested to evaluate learning outcomes of fluent performance. The main findings indicate that reading fluency of all the participants improved following the intervention. Results are discussed with regard to social validity, limitations of conducting a multicomponent intervention, and with respect to