Reading Fluency Beyond English: Investigations into Reading Fluency in Turkish Elementary Students

Abstract

Reading fluency is one of the underlying factors of successful language curricula and it is also one of the defining characteristics of good readers. A lack of fluency is a common characteristic of struggling readers. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates proficiency in reading fluency is important for success in learning to read English. While the role of reading fluency is increasingly recognized as important for literacy acquisition in English, less is known about the role that fluency plays in literacy acquisition in other languages. The present manuscript aims to shed light on the impact of reading fluency in the Turkish language context, and also to provide some practical implications for Turkish stakeholders in education system to improve Turkish children`s reading fluency and thereby also improve Turkish children’s overall reading proficiency. © 2014 IEJEE.