What are Automaticity and Fluency?
Automaticity is defined as fast, accurate and effortless word identification at the single word level. The speed and accuracy at which single words are identified is the best predictor of comprehension. Fluency, on the other hand, involves not only automatic word identification but also the application of appropriate prosodic features (rhythm, intonation, and phrasing) at the phrase, sentence, and text levels. Wood, Flowers, and Grigorenko (2001) emphasize that fluency also involves anticipation of what will come next in the text and that speeded practice alone is not sufficient. Anticipation facilitates reaction time and is particularly important for comprehension. What are the relationships among phonemic awareness, phonics and orthographic reading? The ability to read fluently develops during Jeanne Chall’s Stage 2 of reading, Ungluing from Print, which for most students occurs around second to third grade. (For a complete discussion of Chall’s stage theory of reading acquisition, p
