How the Phonology of Speech Is Foundational for Instant Word Recognition

Perspectives on Language and Literacy Summer 2020 11 For those of us blessed with proficient reading abilities, word-level reading is smooth and effortless and only presents difficulties in unusual circumstances. We often take these fluid skills for granted. Yet how is it that we can move so effortlessly through text, barely giving much conscious thought to the individual words, yet taking in the flow of meaning as we go along? The most obvious answer is that we have word-reading fluency. Fair enough, but how does one become fluent? It may seem a bit surprising that there is good reason to believe that phoneme-level processing skills are at the root of word-level reading fluency. Before dismissing such a nonintuitive notion (i.e., “How does an auditory skill influence visual word recognition? ”), consider the fact that individuals with dyslexia, and individuals who are deaf, lack word reading fluency. Both of these groups of individuals struggle with the phonemic properties of spoken language (for information about phonemes, see “What Are Phonemes”). To understand the connection between phonemic processing skills and word-level reading fluency, let’s consider a little known but research-supported perspective on fluency. The Nature of Word-Reading Fluency The National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) devoted an entire section of its research review to fluency. They defined fluency as reading with speed, accuracy, and proper expression (prosody), and they indicated that fluency was important because it freed up cognitive resources to focus on comprehension. However, they did not discuss the nature of the skills that underlie word-reading fluency or how someone becomes fluent. They also did not say too much about why some children are dysfluent. Not long after the National Reading Panel review came out, series of papers were published by Joseph Torgesen and colleagues (Torgesen; 2004, Torgesen & Hudson, 2006; Torgesen, Rashotte, Alexander, 2001; Torgesen, Rashotte, Alexander, Alexander, & MacPhee, 2003), that provide important insights into the nature and “causes” of reading fluency. They described word-reading fluency as primarily—but not exclusively—a byproduct of the size of the databank of familiar words that readers have stored in long-term memory. This databank of familiar written words is referred to as a sight word vocabulary or an orthographic lexicon. Words in the orthographic lexicon are instantly and effortlessly recognized as familiar because they have been previously encountered and are now well established in memory. “It is the necessity of slowing down to phonemically decode or guess at words that is the most critical factor in limiting the reading fluency of children with severe reading difficulties,” said Torgesen and colleagues. “The most important key to fluent reading of any text is the ability to automatically recognize almost all of the words in the text” (Torgesen et al., 2003, p. 293). Thus, a reader with a large sight vocabulary moves quickly and accurately through text while a reader with a limited sight vocabulary does not. You may be asking, “what about rapid automatized naming (RAN) and reading experience, aren’t they associated with reading fluency? ” You would be correct (Torgesen & Hudson, 2006). However, RAN and reading experience are also associated with the size of the orthographic lexicon. So, we cannot separate these out and speak of them in a simple, additive manner. Educators cannot directly influence RAN, nor can they ultimately control the amount of reading experience a student has. But, there are ways to build word-reading skills and reading fluency. Before discussing that, let’s explore the validity of the notion of fluency proposed by Torgesen and colleagues. Continued on page 12 How the Phonology of Speech Is Foundational for Instant Word Recognition