Relationship of Word Recognition Abilities and Oral Reading Fluency with Reading Comprehension Skills of Secondary School Pakistani EFL Learners

Abstract

Most investigations of associations of oral reading fluency (ORF) and word recognition abilities with text comprehension are based on first language (L1) reading data. Reading research in this area in second language (L2) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context is very limited. The present study analyzed relationship of oral reading fluency and word recognition abilities of secondary school level Pakistani EFL learners with their text comprehension skills. Participants’ oral reading fluency was measured through Rasinski’s (2004) Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MDFS), their word recognition scores were measured through a Sight Word Recognition Test, based on Fry’s (1980) and Dolch’s (1936) word lists and the guidelines in Stoller (1993). A reading comprehension test was developed to assess participants’ reading comprehension skills. Pearson correlation was computed through IBM SPSS Statistics 21 to analyze relationship and the strength of relationshipof word recognition skills and oral reading fluency with text comprehension abilities of the participants. Analysis of results revealed a negative association between word recognition and reading comprehension. On the other hand, a positive association was found between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. Analysis of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that prosody more significantly predicts better reading comprehension scores. As far as predictors of better reading comprehension skills are concerned, oral reading fluency was found to predict more significantly better reading comprehension abilities. Both word recognition exercises and oral reading fluency practice need to be incorporated into the reading instruction in order to improve reading comprehension skills of Pakistani L2 English learners.