Fluency is described as "accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody or expression" (Hudson, Lane & Pullen, 2005). Fluency contains three important aspects: accuracy with word-reading; appropriate rate and automaticity; and how quickly and accurately one reads and prosody, which is influenced by vocal pitch, stress patterns and duration (Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2013). Reading fluency can be positively or negatively impacted by several factors including: reading comprehension skills, accuracy and speed of decoding words, metacognitive skills, vocabulary knowledge and size of the vocabulary, and context (Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2013).
In 1997, Congress appointed a National Reading Panel (NPR) to review reading research and determine the most effective methods for teaching reading. The NRP reviewed over 100,000 studies and analyzed them to see what techniques actually worked in teaching children to read. One of the big five essential components is fluency. In 2000 the NRP submitted their final report and here is the NRP's report just on the area of fluency.
(The University of Oregon)
(Hudson, Lane & Pullen, 2005)
Excerpt from: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000)