Oral and Silent Reading Fluency: An Investigation Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling

Oral and silent reading fluency are often conflated in the literature such that they are treated as a single construct. The current study examined whether oral and silent reading fluency represent distinct constructs in a sample model of fourth-grade students. In addition to oral and silent reading fluency, lower-level reading skills (e.g., word reading, nonword reading, rapid automatic naming) and vocabulary were included in structural equation models in order to determine their impact on students\u27 reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results suggest that oral and silent reading fluency represent separate constructs; however, only oral reading fluency was found to contribute to reading comprehension in the sample. The method used to assess silent reading fluency was found to impact the results. Additionally, vocabulary was found to contribute significantly to comprehension above and beyond the contributions of reading fluency or the subcomponent skills