Building Theory

As children become fluent readers, two benefits emerge:

The ability to read with expression (or prosody)
Young readers who read quickly and accurately read with greater expression than other children. They pause less and have more adult-like sentence intonation contours. Improvements in reading prosody between 1st and 2nd grades predict better comprehension later. Thus, expressive oral reading might signal that children have achieved fluency and good comprehension.

Schwanenflugel, P.J., Hamilton, A.M., Kuhn, M.R., Wisenbaker, J., & Stahl, S.A. (2004). Becoming a fluent reader: Reading skill and prosodic features in the oral reading of young readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 119-129.
Miller, J. M., & Schwanenflugel, P.J. (2006). Prosody of Syntactically Complex Sentences in the Oral Reading of Young Children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 839-853.
Miller, J., & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2008). A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Reading Prosody as a Dimension of Oral Reading Fluency in Early Elementary School Children. Reading Research Quarterly, 43,336-354.

The ability to read with comprehension
Fluent word and text reading operate together with autonomous reading to produce good comprehension. Word calling, where children read fluently but not understand what they read is rare among young elementary school children but increases later as texts become more complex. Eventually, skills other than reading fluency increasingly contribute to good comprehension.

Schwanenflugel, P.J., Meisinger, E., Wisenbaker, J. M., Kuhn, M.R., Strauss, G., & Morris, R.D. (2006). Becoming a fluency and automatic reader in the early elementary school years. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 496-522.
Meisinger, E.B., Bradley, B.A., Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Kuhn, M.R. (2009). Myth and Reality of the Word Caller: The Relationship between Teacher Nominations and Prevalence among Elementary School Children. Manuscript available.
Meisinger, E.B., Bradley, B.A., Schwanenflugel, P. J., && Kuhn, M.R. (2009). Teachers’ Perception of Word Callers and Related Literacy Concepts. Manuscript available.

Better reading self-concept
We tested various hypothesized relationships regarding changes in students’ reading self-concept and reading fluency skill over second grade. Better reading fluency skill at the beginning of second grade was related to enhanced self-concept mid-year which then led to improved fluency by the end of the year. Thus, students’ reading self-concept begins to influence children’s reading achievement earlier than previous research had indicated.

Quirk, M., Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Webb, M-Y. (in press). An Examination of the Relationship between Motivation to Read and Reading Fluency Skill in Second Grade Children. Journal of Literacy Research.

Implications: Teachers need not worry that an emphasis on fluency practice will produce word callers. They should emphasize children use adult-like expression as they read aloud but be aware that poor oral reading may lead to poor reading self-concept. Expression should be included in formal definitions of reading fluency.