Unit of word recognition as an indicator of reading fluency: Use of a lexical decision task.

摘要

This study was conducted to determine if the unit of word recognition as measured by a lexical decision task is a valid measure to use as a reading fluency measure. The hypothesis is that if a student can recognize a longer word as quickly as a shorter word, the student is fluent, because this student is reading the words as holistic units freeing cognitive resources for simultaneous comprehension. The lexical decision task as a reading fluency measure is useful in that it can be used to determine if a student is fluent and it takes less time to administer than other measures.;Data from this study found that for younger readers, recognizing longer words took significantly more time than recognizing shorter words, indicating they were doing letter-by-letter processing. For college students, there was not a significant difference in processing time for longer or shorter words, indicating they were recognizing the words as holistic units. On the high frequency words used in this study, fourth and sixth graders recognized these words using units that were larger than the single letter but not quite at the holistic level.;How do student scores on the lexical decision task compare with how the student would do on other measures of reading skill such as the Woodcock Johnson Word Reading Test, reading speed, and reading comprehension tests? There was a significant correlation between the scores on the lexical decision task and the Woodcock Johnson Word Reading Test. There were significant Unit of word recognition as a fluency indicator correlations between the lexical decision task and reading speed for grades two, four, and six, as well as for tests of comprehension for grades two, four, and six. Failure to find significant correlations at the college level was due to lack of variability on the criterion measures.;The implication for education is that the lexical decision task can be used to determine unit of word recognition, and the unit of word recognition can be used to determine if a student is a fluent reader.