Automaticity in reading

Following are a number of statements extracted from What Research Has To Say About Reading Instruction [International Reading Association] and particularly from the chapter entitled Reading Fluency: Techniques for Making Decoding Automatic by Samuels S J [University of Minnesota] and Farstrup A E [International Reading Association]. The excerpts are selected to raise awareness of the need for automaticity in word recognition, its effect on fluency and comprehension in silent reading, and why fluency is a critically needed accomplishment for all readers. Note that the points are made largely in respect of first language beginner readers in English, but have clear implications for ESL and EFL readers.

All the bulleted points are direct quotations from the above source.

• Goodman and Goodman [1979, page 149] have stated that fluent reading consists of optical, perceptual, syntactic, and semantic cycles, each melting into the next as readers try to get meaning as efficiently as possible using minimal time and energy, while at the other end of the spectrum, Carnine and Silbert [1979, page 32] have stated that fluency means reading smoothly, easily and quickly.

• Despite general agreement that fluency is an essential element of reading, we may be hard pressed to find any reference to it in many of the most widely used textbooks on reading instruction.

• Despite general recognition of the importance of fluency, the topic is rarely discussed in instructional materials for teachers.

• Until the student is fluent in reading, learning from a text poses two formidable burdens: [firstly] the barrier posed by difficulty in identifying words, and [secondly] the comprehension problem of constructing a coherent representation of the information in the text. After fluency is reached, word identification is achieved with relative ease, and the primary burden is comprehension. Thus educators seem to recognize that students cannot focus on the real goal of reading – to read for meaning – until they can read fluently.

• A similar definition of fluent reading can be found in A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms [Harris & Hodges, 1981]. Here we find fluency defined as freedom from word identification problems.

• Fortunately, automaticity theory can explain how reading fluency develops. It helps us understand the differences between early reading stages, when the student is ‘glued’ to the print, and later stages, when the student can focus attention on meaning. In fact, the terms fluency and automaticity are often used interchangeably.

• Automaticity theory, as described by LaBerge and Samuels [1874], can be used to explain the development of fluency using three components of the reading process: decoding, comprehension, and attention. Decoding is an essential part of the reading process. By decoding, we mean the process by which the letters of a printed word are converted to their spoken representation. It is important to emphasize that decoding does not include understanding meaning!

• Comprehension, or the production of meaning from decoded words, is the second major component of the reading process. Producing meaning is viewed as a generative process in that the reader’s understanding of the text results from combining information from the text with personal knowledge and experience.

• LaBerge and Brown [1986] compared the focusing of attention to a spotlight. Attention, like a beam of light, can be either broadly or tightly focused. The mind will analyze whatever part of the page falls within the attention spotlight. Similarly, if the attention spotlight is focused only on decoding and not on comprehension, the reader will decode the words but will not generate meaning.

• For the beginning reader, the problem of demand for attention exceeding supply can be overcome with a simple strategy: divide and conquer. Instead of combing the decoding and comprehension tasks, the reader tackles these tasks individually. First the reader focuses attention on decoding. Once that task is completed, the reader’s attention switches to comprehension. By dividing the tasks and getting them done one at a time, the student avoids overtaxing attention resources and is able to move along one word at a time. Although this beginning strategy allows the student to derive meaning from the text, it comes at a high cost. The strategy places a heavy load on memory and attention, making beginning reading slow and difficult.

By the time the student becomes fluent in reading, the unit of recognition is the whole word [or phrase]. The advantage of recognizing a word [or phrase] as a whole unit is that [particularly contextualized] words [and perhaps more especially whole phrases or expressions] have meaning, and less memory is required for a meaningful word [or phrase] than for a meaningless letter [or part of a word]. This is where meaning chunks become so important in skilled reading.

• Automaticity is based on the principle that tasks become easier, requiring less attention, through practice. When less attention is required for a task and it seems to run on its own, we say the task is automatic. With regard to reading, it is decoding that becomes automatic through practice; comprehension always requires considerable attention, especially if the concepts are unfamiliar.

• As teachers of reading, our goal should be to move beyond accuracy to automaticity – and automaticity is achieved only with practice.

• While previous research on repeated reading has examined decoding and comprehension, what happens to eye movements as readers repeatedly read the same text is not well known. Knowledge about eye movement is important, because this movement can reflect both cognitive processing and level of reading skill. For our purposes, we will look at three aspects of readers’ eye movements: [one] the number of fixations – or stops - they eye makes while recognizing words, [two] the duration of the eye fixation, or the amount of time it takes a reader to identify and understand a segment of text before moving on, and [three] the number of times the eye regresses, or goes back to a previously encountered portion of text …………… These three aspects differ depending on whether the reader recognizes the words in a passage automatically. If a reader is not automatic, there are many fixations per line, especially if the reader is processing letter by letter. Also, the duration of fixation is quite long, and regressions are numerous. When automaticity has been achieved on the passage, fixations are few, the duration of fixation is short, and there are few regressions.

• Summary: Regardless of their position of how reading should be taught, educators agree that students need to become fluent or automatic in decoding to become skilled readers.

While automaticity and certain levels of fluency in silent reading can be developed through repeat readings and practice, it should be mentioned that training techniques within a guided reading program will additionally develop visual and functional competence, automaticity with flash and type activities, more rapid word recognition in context, risk taking, and efficiency in all oculo-motor performance characteristics. These will facilitate the more effective use of short-term memory and will provide a direct and effective means of developing higher levels of fluency in silent reading.

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