Beyond the bridge
An integrative developmental framework for first-language reading fluency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24219213 |
|---|---|
| Authors | János Steklács (0000-0003-0998-6278, University of Pecs) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-07 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Language Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2813-4605 • E-ISSN: 2813-4605 |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/flang.2026.1955851 |
| References cited | 55 |
Reading fluency is central to reading development, yet its conceptual boundaries and changing relations with word recognition and comprehension remain unsettled. This conceptual analysis proposes that fluency development changes how processing time is organized across connected text. As word identification consolidates, timing is hypothesized to become increasingly responsive to linguistic integration demands and reading goals. Fluent performance can therefore include selective local slowing followed by recovery of continuity. The framework draws on established accounts of automaticity, synchronization, word-to-text integration, and strategic regulation. Fluency is characterized through accuracy, temporal continuity and pace regulation, and, in oral reading, prosodic organization. Connected-text coordination is proposed to explain the temporal relationships among word identification, linguistic grouping, and local meaning updating. Three overlapping configurations organize the relative prominence of lexical constraints, integration demands, and regulation by meaning and reading goals. Their number and developmental ordering remain hypotheses. Reading experience can support lexical consolidation and better calibrated linguistic expectations, with oral-language resources, morphological development, compensatory profiles, and orthographic variation constraining the account. The primary hypothesis predicts that, as word identification consolidates under comparable reading conditions, the association between global reading rate and comprehension will weaken, while the association between demand-sensitive local timing and comprehension will remain stable or strengthen. This joint prediction follows from the proposed change in processing constraints, beyond faster word identification alone. Secondary hypotheses address goal-dependent rereading and generalization across oral and silent reading. Evaluation requires independently specified demands and outcomes, longitudinal measurement, and comparison with existing accounts. The framework's proposed contribution is a developmental explanation linking the organization of processing time to the changing informativeness of fluency indicators. Its explanatory value depends on these commitments distinguishing it from alternative accounts.
Relationships of three components of reading fluency to reading comprehension.
Phonological Recoding and Orthographic Learning
Orthographic Depth and Its Impact on Universal Predictors of Reading
Phonological recoding and self-teaching
Learning to Read Words
Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning
Oral Reading Fluency as an Indicator of Reading Competence
Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading
Word Knowledge in a Theory of Reading Comprehension
DRC
Sources of Individual Differences in Reading Comprehension and Reading Fluency.
Reading Ability
Reading Fluency and Its Intervention
Conceptualizing and modeling the bridging role of reading fluency between decoding and reading comprehension in L1 research
Prediction in reading
How morphology impacts reading and spelling
Toward Integrative Reading Science
The relation between text reading and reading comprehension varies as a function of developmental phase, orthographic depth, and measurement characteristics
E-book reading hinders aspects of long-text comprehension for adults with dyslexia
Do Oral and Silent Word-Reading Fluency Rely on the Same Cognitive-Linguistic Skills? Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study in Greek
Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency
A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Reading Prosody as a Dimension of Oral Reading Fluency in Early Elementary School Children
Oral Reading Fluency Assessment
Aligning Theory and Assessment of Reading Fluency
Text Complexity and Oral Reading Prosody in Young Readers
The Science of Reading Progresses
What is text reading fluency and is it a predictor or an outcome of reading comprehension? A longitudinal investigation
Reciprocal relationship
Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies
The Same yet Different
On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice
Reading Acquisition, Developmental Dyslexia, and Skilled Reading Across Languages
| Highly cited | No |
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