Abstract

Subsequent to the National Reading Panel’s (2000) report, more researchers have been examining the role that reading fluency plays in the development of a child’s reading skills. This study investigated the efficacy of the National Reading Panel’s research claim that a child learns reading fluency skills mainly through phonics and decoding instruction. Using a methodology to track the source of reading miscues, this paper demonstrates that a student’scultural and semantic knowledge of textvitally influences the development of reading fluency skills. Specifically, the findings suggest that a child culturally enacts reading fluency both through graphophonic and semantic knowledge of words. In the process of cultural enactment, reading fluency embodies a complex interplay between graphophonic understandings and a student’s cultural domains. Lastly, this work theorizes the role that cultural and semantical influences play in the role of a student acquiring reading fluency.

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