The Development Of Second Language Reading Fluency

INTRODUCTION

Background and Motivation

Fluency is the most distinguishing feature between native and non-native speakers and the most essential component of learning second language proficiency. However, the concept of fluency has not been well understood in English education in Korea. In the school field, there have been teaching methods and assessments that emphasize accuracy only. Most of the classes and evaluations were centered on grammar and vocabulary that were not relevant to real life, and even conversation classes, where fluency was particularly emphasized, were mainly about memorizing dialogue or doing a role play in the rehearsed situation. In reading classes, rather than extensive reading for pleasure, or reading for genuine interests for exchanging information, the Grammar translation method was still used to interpret and understand the structure and vocabularies from the limited reading materials. Because the method of assessment and the teaching focused only on accuracy, it was difficult to develop fluency for improving communication skills emphasized in English education at present. Therefore, students are embarrassed in an actual English-using environment or a test environment that emphasizes fluency. Especially, students have a lot of trouble understanding the fast speed of native speakers’ speaking in real life. Also, in proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS, students feel that they don’t have enough time to comprehend the text. It shows that fluency does not improve by itself. Teachers should make a conscious effort to improve students’ fluency. Reading speed in L2 has not been considered particularly important so far. However, fluency is important to improve comprehension and to process the necessary information within a limited time. Therefore, the goal of this research is to investigate how to improve second-language fluency and see how it can be implemented for the real teaching situation.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Characteristics of Written Language

There are several distinct differences between spoken and written language. Brown (2005) explained the seven characteristics of the written language in his book.

The first characteristic is “permanence”. The spoken language disappears as soon as the speaker speaks. The listener needs immediate recognition and storage. However, written language is permanent. The reader can read whenever he or she needs (Brown, 2015).

The second characteristic is “processing time”. Many written texts allow readers to read at their own pace. For example, there is no time limit for reading for pleasure. They do not have to be forced to meet the speed of delivery as in spoken language. However, an optimal reading rate is also important, especially for academic reading assignments, tests, and assessments. Teachers should consider optimal reading rates and help learners to achieve a fluency rate (Brown, 2015).

The third characteristic is “Distance”. The written language can be delivered regardless of physical or temporal distance. All the reader has to do is to interpret the written language which was written in different places and at different times. At this time, the reader has only a few contextual clues from the written words. This decontextualized nature of writing makes reading difficult (Brown, 2015).

The fourth characteristic is “orthography”. Spoken language uses many clues, such as voice, intonation, stress, rhythm, pauses and nonverbal cues to convey meaning well. However, written language only has graphemes. Because of the ambiguity, readers should try to guess and interpret between the lines. Readers may have difficulty in word recognition processes and reading comprehension because of the limited knowledge of orthographic representations (Brown, 2015).

The fifth characteristic is “complexity”. Spoken language has relatively shorter clauses connected by more coordinated conjunctions. However, written language has longer clauses and more subordination. The cognitive complexity of the written version is no greater than the spoken version. However, structurally longer sentence was used in the written version and shorter sentences were used in the spoken version. Therefore, the linguistic differences between speech and writing can cause difficulty (Brown, 2015).

The sixth characteristic is “vocabulary”. In spoken language, vocabulary is limited. In written language, words with low frequency tend to appear because of the more processing time, a desire to convey accurately, and the formal conventions of writing. However, readers should refrain from looking in a bilingual dictionary and try to guess unknown words in context (Brown, 2015).

The last characteristic is “formality”. Written language is much more formal than spoken languages. If the reader does not understand the formal aspects of a written language well, he or she may have difficulty understanding the writing (Brown, 2015).

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Reading Fluency

Reading processes involve comprehension and word recognition Therefore, reading is an essential part of one's studies. Because reading process is interactive and communicative way for decoding letters and gaining knowledge, reading abilities are a requirement for learners. Many researchers discussed what skills should be gained to improve students’ reading abilities and what kinds of methods can improve these skills. As a result, the importance of reading fluency based on the word automaticity has been emphasized. Recently, more research has supported that fluency or reading rate is also important similar to other language skills. Fluency is a combination of both reading rate and reading comprehension. More specifically, reading fluency means the ability to read rapidly, accurately, and with prosody (National Reading Panel, 2000). In other words, Reading rapidly means the automaticity in reading and reading accurately means the correct interpretation of letters. Reading with prosody means reading appropriately by focusing important words, pausing at proper moments, or changing intonation (National Reading Panel, 2000).

According to The National Reading Panel (2000), There are five reading skills and effective methods for each skill. Five skills are “phonemic awareness,” “phonics,” “fluency,” “vocabulary,” and “comprehension.” Comprehension is the ultimate purpose of reading among these skills. Also, among them, especially reading fluency is considered as a very important reading skill. The automaticity of word recognition is the most important element in reading fluency. If children’s word recognition ability is not developed well, reading comprehension will be lacking because children have to use more time for decoding. Besides, it has been found that reading fluency is highly related to reading comprehension and an essential skill in high-level reading ability (National Reading Panel, 2000).

Connectionist Approach to Language Acquisition

Connectionism, which has a very different view from nativism, has been developed over the last 30 years. Connectionism refers to a broad approach in cognitive science that utilizes computational modeling and aims at explaining various mental processes within the framework of simple interconnected units. These units make neural networks, which are intended to simulate, in a highly simplified way, the network of neurons in the brain (Dörnyei, 2009, p. 89). A connectionist architecture system is a network of interrelated nodes and represents knowledge. The connection between any two nodes has a certain activation weight and reflects the strength with which the two nodes are associated. When the new information comes into the system, the connection between some of its nodes may increase or decrease. When learners are asked to use the knowledge, the system produces output nodes that reflect its current internode activation patterns (Hulstijn, 2007, p. 703).

The concept of frequency is important to the connectionist’s point of view. The more frequently a system is exposed to a particular string, the more easily this string will form a strong bond. In contrast, a particular string never or rarely occurs. For example, the word BALL is often recognized, but BLAL is never recognized. (Hulstijn, 2007, p. 703).

Learning a second language goes through two stages. First, words and word combinations are achieved and represented in architectures of the connectionist type. Second, prototype patterns of words and phrases are acquired. These patterns can first be represented in the form of connectionist networks, but eventually can take the form of rule-based networks, which account for their productivity (Hulstijn, 2007, p. 704).

Implicit and Explicit Linguistic Knowledge and Learning

Implicit knowledge enables quick and parallel processing. Implicit knowledge allows for rapid, parallel processing. The best elements to represent and process of implicit knowledge are connectionist. Implicit knowledge is essential to native speakers' fluent language skills. Recent studies argue that implicit knowledge doesn’t reside in a specific area of the brain but is spread out widely over various areas of the neocortex. Implicit learning forms implicit knowledge. Autonomous and unconscious process occurs when information is processed through what is seen or heard. When we listen, speak, read, or write, we cannot choose not to encode and store information or not to control the connection weights (Hulstijn, 2007, p. 706).

Explicit knowledge is the form of symbols or rules and it indicates intersymbol relationships. Explicit knowledge involves many aspects of vocabulary knowledge and is processed in certain areas of the brain that are unrelated to the area where implicit knowledge is located. Explicit learning constructs explicit knowledge which is a conscious and planned process of concept formation and linking. This process can happen when learners are learning concepts or rules by teachers or textbooks, or when they are trying to develop concepts or rules on their own. Explicit knowledge generally cannot occur at a very young age because it requires cognitive development above a certain level. In most cases, explicit teaching is preferred for knowledge acquisition of school subjects including foreign language (Hulstijn, 2007, p. 706).

Explicit knowledge can transform into implicit knowledge. For example, the learners start with a rule and then continue to create the phrase in which the rule is applied, saving the phrase in memory. As experience increases, memory becomes stronger and activation levels increase. Eventually, retrieval of stored information will be much faster than rule application (Hulstijn, 2007, p. 707).

DISCUSSION

As problems of traditional English teaching methods that focus only on accuracy that is different from real life are raised, I thought about how I could design fluency focused class. The reason why I chose reading among the four skills of English is that reading is the most important part of the English education environment in Korea. Therefore, I have researched second language reading fluency in terms of word recognition automaticity and would like to apply it in real classroom situations.

REFERENCES

1. Brown, HD. (2015). Teaching by principle (4th edition). Pearson Education.
2. Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The psychology of second language acquisition. Oxford University Press
3. Ellis, N. (2002). Frequency effects in language processing: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143-188.
4. Hulstijn JH (2007). Psycholinguistic perspectives on second language acquisition. The international handbook on English language teaching (pp. 701–713).