Abstract
Over the past two decades, reading fluency has been increasingly recognized as an important instructional variable for success in reading. Yet, this has not always been the case. This article presents a historical review of the nature and role of fluency instruction in the United States. The roots of oral reading fluency began in an age when texts and other forms of entertainment and information were limited. Historically, in America, oral reading was the predominant means for conveying ideas and passing the time at home with the family. In the 1800s, American education’s primary method of instruction emphasized the need for being able to read aloud with expression and fluency, in order to hold the listeners’ attention and convey information. As texts and other forms of information became more available, oral reading became deemphasized, and silent reading was viewed as a better approach to developing readers’ comprehension at the cost of fluency development. With continued research and national reports that indicate the significant contributions of oral reading fluency to reading comprehension and academic proficiency, it is clear that the roots of oral reading run deep, and that fluent reading development is important to learners’ academic achievement and reading comprehension.
Highlights
Inasmuch as reading fluency has been identified in the United States by the National Reading Panel as a critical competency test for proficiency in reading, yet has often been neglected and misunderstood in the reading curriculum, a review of the history of fluency is in order
We provide an historical overview of the nature and role of reading fluency instruction in the United States
While this result may not be surprising to reading scholars, in today’s educational world where the currency for a school is percent proficiency, this is a startling finding. The moral of these results for elementary school leaders is that failing to develop fluent readers may well end poorly when it comes to accountability testing. This history of oral reading and oral reading fluency in the United States began in an age when texts and other forms of entertainment and information were limited, and oral reading was the predominant means for conveying ideas and passing the time at home with the family
Summary
Inasmuch as reading fluency has been identified in the United States by the National Reading Panel as a critical competency test for proficiency in reading, yet has often been neglected and misunderstood in the reading curriculum, a review of the history of fluency is in order. In American education, oral reading played a dominant role both in and out of the classroom. Oral reading was a primary form of entertainment, and if others were to either enjoy a book or learn from text, it had to be read aloud. As a result of its main role as a means of both entertainment and sharing knowledge, oral reading was the focus of United States classroom instruction [1]. In order to maximize reading instruction in classrooms that had a limited supply of texts, schools began to use a form of oral reading that focused on the features of diction, which included articulation, pronunciation, delivery and vocalization. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was apparent that oral reading had become such a deep-rooted and entrenched part of American life and learning that the philosopher William James [8], as cited in Hoffman and Segel, [5] pointed out that “ . . . success or failure in teaching reading is based, so far as the public estimate is concerned, upon the oral reading method”
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