초등학생들의 초기 읽기 능력과 구두읽기 유창성의 관계

Relationship between early reading ability and oral reading fluency

The current study examined the relationship between early reading ability and reading fluency of 57 sixth-grade students. The reading measures were administered individually to assess students’ reading ability and fluency. The following sub-tests were used to measure the reading ability: Alphabet ettername fluency, word reading fluency, and phonological awareness. An oral reading fluency task was given to measure students’ reading fluency. Significant correlations were observed among these variables. Alphabet letter-name fluency correlated with phonological awareness(r=.38), word reading fluency(r=.41) and oral reading fluency(r=.35). Word reading fluency more strongly correlated with phonological awareness(r=.62) and oral reading fluency(r=.80). The results of regression analyses indicated that phonological awareness(R²=.422) predicted word reading fluency, while word reading fluency(R²=.662) predicted oral reading fluency. However, many students revealed the lack of phonemic awareness in segmenting twelve phonemes and they identified better the names of upper-case letters of alphabet than those of lower-case letters. This research implied that not only is phonemic awareness necessary for developing word reading fluency, but also automatic word recognition skills should be viewed as crucial in improving reading fluency in the process of early reading. Some other potential implications for early reading instruction and future research are also discussed.