The Contribution of Reading Fluency and Genre to Reading Comprehension among Third and Fifth Graders

Abstract

This study investigated oral and silent reading fluency in relation to the type of text (expository and poetic) and reading comprehension among students in the third and fifth grades of primary school. Two aims were set to this study (1) to investigate the effect of genre on reading fluency and reading comprehension, (2) and to clarify the relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension. Within a descriptive research framework, the researcher developed three measures: oral reading fluency test, silent reading fluency test, and reading comprehension test. Each of which has two versions: one for third graders and the other for fifth graders. A random sample of 147 student (68 third graders and 79 fifth graders) was selected from five public schools situated in the far south of Saudi Arabia, Jazan district. The participants completed the two reading fluency measures individually while the reading comprehension measure was administered to the whole class. The results revealed that the students read the expository text more accurately, rapidly and with more comprehension than reading the poetic genre. The results of Linear Regression indicated that reading fluency explained 19.5% of variance in reading comprehension. Implications for practice and future research for reading fluency and reading comprehension were presented.