A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Reading Prosody as a Dimension of Oral Reading Fluency in Early Elementary School Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the development of reading prosody and its impact on later reading skills. Suprasegmental features of oral reading were measured for 92 children at the end of grades 1 and 2 and oral reading fluency and reading comprehension assessments at the end of the third-grade school year. Tests were carried out to determine (a) the manner in which the key features of oral reading prosody unfold with development and (b) the extent to which the development of reading prosody is predictive of later oral reading fluency and comprehension outcomes beyond word reading skills alone. Path model tests found a relationship between the presence of fewer pausal intrusions during oral reading in first grade and subsequent development of an adult-like intonation contour in second grade. Outcome model tests indicated that the intonation contour was a significant predictor of later fluency once word reading skills were taken into account. Decreases in the number of pausal intrusions between the first and second grades and early acquisition of an adult-like intonation contour predicted better comprehension later. Thus, prosodic oral reading might signal that children have achieved fluency and are more capable of understanding what they read. Results of this study support the inclusion of prosody in formal definitions of oral reading fluency.

The Indicating Factors of Oral Reading Fluency of Monolingual and Bilingual Children in Egypt

“…Prosody, in the current study, refers to reading connected texts smoothly and expressively by which children show that they comprehend what they read orally (Baker & Valencia, 2012;Miller & Schwanenflugel, 2008;Rasinski, 2004;McKenna & Stahi, 2003). Fluent students read with accurate prosody, and this can be judged by observing students while they read orally according to certain rubrics.…”

Does speech rhythm sensitivity predict children's reading ability 1 year later?

“…In a recent longitudinal study, Miller and Schwanenflugel (2008) investigated the extent to which prosodic sensitivity (as measured at the end of Grade 1 and Grade 2) could predict later reading fluency and reading comprehension in Grade 3. To assess prosody (pausing and intonation), they recorded children's oral reading, converted it to a .WAV file, and then scored it using a speech software package.…”

“…In fact, the study by Miller and Schwanenflugel (2008) remains the only longitudinal study of prosodic sensitivity and literacy to date. Therefore, more empirical evidence is required to consolidate recent findings, to see how speech rhythm sensitivity relates to the different components of reading over time, and to do so using different measures of speech rhythm sensitivity.…”

Habilidades fonológicas suprasegmentales y desarrollo lector en niños de educación primaria

“…Uno de ellos es el nivel léxico (capacidad de percibir el acento o de manipular las sílabas acentuadas en una palabra) y otro es a nivel métrico (capacidad de percibir el ritmo, la entonación y las pausas a nivel de sintagma o frase). Por tanto, la prosodia no se considera un constructo unitario, sino que está formado por distintas habilidades que podrían tener distintas relaciones con los procesos de lectura (Miller y Schwanenflugel, 2008). Algunos autores han argumentado sobre la necesidad de integrar las diversas asociaciones encontradas entre habilidades prosódicas y la lectura en una medida multi-componente que distinga entre acento, entonación y ritmo (Holliman et al, 2013;Holliman, et al, 2014).…”