The Role of Reading Automaticity and Prosody in Reading Comprehension of Elementary Students in Grades 2–4

Abstract

Objectives:Reading fluency has been traditionally assessed by reading automaticity (accuracy and speed), however recent studies have reported that prosody is another critical dimension. Previous studies found that reading fluency is strongly related to reading comprehension and the effect of reading fluency on reading comprehension is different depending on participants' school grade. The purpose of this study is to explore the relative contribution of reading automaticity and prosody to reading comprehension across grades. Methods: Seventy-six elementary school children (25 in the second grade, 24 in the third grade, and 27 in the fourth grade) participated in this study. All participants were tested to evaluate reading automaticity, reading prosody (attention to punctuation, inappropriate pause, declarative sentences -F0 change, questions -F0 change), vocabulary, reading comprehension. Stepwise multiple regressions were conducted to examine variables which can predict reading comprehension. Results: The variable which could predict reading comprehension was reading automaticity among the second and the third grades. In the fourth grade, however, the variables which could predict reading comprehension were vocabulary and inappropriate pauses. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that predictive power of reading automaticity and prosody for reading comprehension may be different depending on participants' school grade and that it is necessary to assess both automatic and prosodic dimensions to measure the reading fluency of school-aged children.