Between-Word Processing and Text-Level Skills Contributing to Fluent Reading of (Non)Word Lists and Text

This study investigated (1) sequential (between-word) processing efficiency at various points during development, (2) its importance within a range of measures typically used to assess reading fluency, and 3) how subskills typically associated with word-level and text-level processes may interact and uniquely contribute to various reading fluency outcomes. The sample included 139 intermediate-level (Grade 3, n = 78) and more advanced (Grade 5, n = 61) readers of Dutch. Word-level subskills covered within-word processes and sequential between-word processing efficiency. Subskills associated with text-level processing were vocabulary and syntactic skills. Fluency measures included simple and complex lists of words and nonwords, and a text. Data were analyzed through hierarchical regressions and commonality analyses. The findings extend the importance of sequential (between-word) processing efficiency for fluent reading of simple word lists and texts, after controlling for within-word processes, to complex word lists and texts as well as lists of nonwords. The findings hold for both intermediate-level and more advanced readers and, as expected, the contribution of between-word processing increased with reading-skill level. Effects of vocabulary were generally absent, aside from a small effect on text reading fluency in Grade 3. Effects of syntactic skills were not found, not even in more advanced readers. The results support the idea that once efficient individual word recognition is in place, further fluency development is driven by more efficient between-word processing. They also confirm that vocabulary may be less prominent in processing mechanisms underlying fluent word identification in transparent languages, across reading levels.
Keywords: Fluency, language skills, serial naming, text reading, word reading, word recognition.