Measuring oral reading fluency in immigrant adults who learn Spanish as L2: difficulties and challenges

Abstract

The study of the oral reading fluency has earned interest in reading research in the last decades, since it is considered an element in the reading process. Despite the construct not being clearly defined, there is certain agreement to consider fluent reading as a key competence in daily reading, both in the mother tongue as well as in second language. However, research based on the nature and role of the reading fluency has not been conclusive enough yet in L2, on one hand, and research on immigrants and refugees is still scarce and limited, on the other.

This paper aims to propose a valid design to measure oral reading fluency in research and Spanish language teaching with literate immigrants and refugees. A review on the concept of reading fluency and the types of tools for its study has been carried out.  Finally, a test to measure reading fluency feasibly and reliably in the Spanish language classroom for migrants and refugee learners is presented. This proposal includes both objective proceedings (automaticity in the word recognition) and subjective proceedings (rating scale of reading prosody).

Keywords: Oral Reading Fluency, Literacy, Inmigrants and refugees, Adults, Spanish as a Foreign Language.