Exploring the Relationship Between Textbook-based Oral Reading Fluency and L2 Reading Comprehension Among Korean EFL Learners

This study investigates the relationship between textbook-based oral reading fluency and L2 readingcomprehension among Korean middle school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. A totalof 192 ninth-grade students from public middle schools in South Korea participated, completing oralreading tasks derived from grade-level textbook passages. Oral reading fluency was operationalizedthrough word recognition accuracy (WRA), reading rate (words correct per minute, WCPM), andprosody, as measured by an adapted Informal Reading Inventory (IRI). Results revealed that 14.1% ofthe students could read and comprehend passages independently, whereas 41.1% required instructionalsupport, and 44.8% experienced difficulties either decoding the text or maintaining adequatecomprehension. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses showed that all three components ofORF—accuracy, automaticity, and prosody—were significantly associated with L2 readingcomprehension. Notably, when automaticity and prosody were considered jointly, they accounted forapproximately 52% of the variance in students’ reading comprehension, substantiating both factors asinfluential predictors of reading achievement. These findings highlight the need for fluency-focusedpedagogy and classroom-based diagnostic assessment in Korean EFL contexts, as well as theimportance of establishing national benchmarks for oral reading fluency.