Relations Among Oral Reading Fluency, Silent Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension: A Latent Variable Study of First-Grade Readers

The present study examined oral and silent reading fluency and their relations with reading comprehension. In a series of structural equation models (SEM) with latent variables using data from 316 first-grade students, (1) silent and oral reading fluency were found to be related yet distinct forms of reading fluency; (2) silent reading fluency predicted reading comprehension better for skilled readers than for average readers; (3) list reading fluency predicted reading comprehension better for average readers than for skilled readers; and (4) listening comprehension predicted reading comprehension better for skilled readers than for average readers.