Prosody and fluent reading

Expressive reading is a way to show that the reader is making sense of the meaning of a text. Therefore, oral expression in reading can make a distinction between good and poor readers, but can also be used to monitor comprehension. Fluent readers incorporate prosodic features of spoken language (accent, height variations of voice, intonation, phrasing and pauses) while reading, making it sound as natural as possible. This research shows the evaluation of the three prosodic dimensions, intonation and emphasis, phrasing and pace, in readings done by 2nd year high school students from four public schools in Belém, state of Pará. The results reveal a serious deficiency in the Portuguese language teaching in high school: most of the students have not reached a minimally acceptable level of fluency yet