Oral Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Silent Reading Fluency at Secondary and Postsecondary Levels

Abstract

This research investigated oral reading fluency as a predictor of silent reading fluency at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Several measures were used, including the Gray Oral Reading Test, the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency, the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency, and the Reading Observation Scale. A total of 223 students participated in the research, 63.2% at the postsecondary and 36.8% at the high school level. Among them, 17.5% had reading disabilities. We sought to identify performance-level differences between the two groups, students with and without reading disabilities; specifically, silent reading fluency test results of students with reading disabilities vs. students without reading disabilities and the oral reading fluency as a predictor of silent reading fluency proficiency levels. An independent-samples t test, correlations, and hierarchical regression analyses were employed. The results indicated that the relationships between oral reading fluency and silent reading fluency were statistically significant.