How problems of reading fluency and comprehension are related to difficulties in syntactic awareness skills among fifth graders

Abstract In this study, we assessed and analyzed 5th grade students’ levels of syntactic awareness in relation to their reading fluency and comprehension. The aim was to examine the role of syntactic awareness (children's awareness of the syntactic structure of sentences and their ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure) as a potential source of reading fluency and comprehension difficulty for these readers. We found that the students’ levels of syntactic awareness were significantly related to their reading fluency (r= .625) and reading comprehension performance (r= .816). These relationships indicate that lower levels of syntactic awareness correspond to poor reading fluency and poor comprehension among these readers. These findings have important implications for research and instruction addressing the relative contributions of broader language skills to the development of reading fluency and comprehension among struggling readers.