Gómez-Domínguez, María. (2016). Fluidez lectora oral en inglés como lengua extranjera.  Tonos Digital, Revista de Estudios Filológicos, 31. ISSN: 1577- 6921.

Basándonos en estudios previos que demuestran que las destrezas de decodificación, fluidez oral y comprensión lectora están íntimamente relacionadas tanto en una lengua materna como en una segunda lengua, este estudio investiga la competencia en las destrezas de fluidez y compresión lectora de 30 estudiantes españoles de Educación Secundaria que aprenden inglés como lengua extranjera. El propósito de este estudio es comprobar la eficacia de un programa de intervención para mejorar el desarrollo de la fluidez lectora oral del alumnado. Para conseguir este objetivo e identificar a los estudiantes con dificultades lectoras, al alumnado se le administró las pruebas de fluidez en la lectura oral –velocidad y precisión- y fluidez en el recuento oral –comprensión- del test estandarizado DIBELS-6, al comienzo y al final del estudio. De interés también son las pautas proporcionadas para que el profesorado pueda diseñar e implementar un futuro programa de intervención que subsane los problemas lectores identificados en su alumnado. Los resultados indican que la intervención mejora la fluidez oral, velocidad y precisión lectora del alumnado; sin embargo, su efecto en la comprensión lectora no es estadísticamente significativo. Este resultado puede deberse al bajo nivel de competencia en la lengua extranjera del alumnado comparado con las medias de la población general de DIBELS. No obstante, para que esta herramienta sea práctica para los docentes en el aula, se necesitan medidas estandarizadas de fluidez en la lectura oral y comprensión lectora adaptadas al contexto de adolescentes españoles que aprenden inglés como lengua extranjera.

ABSTRACT.

Based on previous studies showing that decoding and oral reading fluency skills are strongly related to better reading comprehension in both a first and a second language, this study investigates the reading fluency and comprehension proficiency of thirty Spanish-speaking Secondary students learning English as foreign language. The purpose of this study is to test for the efficacy of a training program aimed at improving students´oral reading fluency development. To achieve this objective and also to identify those students with reading difficulties, the oral reading fluency –speed and accuracy- and the retell fluency –comprehension- measures of the standardized test DIBELS-6 were administered, before and after training. Of interest are also the guidelines provided for teachers to implement and design a future training program which may remedy participants´ reading problems encountered during the reading process. Results show that the training program improves learners´ fluency, speed and accuracy in oral reading; however, its effect on reading comprehension is not statistically significant. This finding may be due to the low foreign language proficiency level of the participants since the beginning of the study. Compared with the average rates provided by DIBELS benchmark scores, even after the intervention students are at some risk of reading failure. However, for teachers to use DIBELS as a user-friendly tool in the classroom, oral reading fluency and reading comprehension standardized scales adapted to the context of Spanish teenagers learning English as a foreign language need to be developed and provided.

Further reading/ complete manuscript:

http://www.tonosdigital.es/ojs/index.php/tonos/article/view/1513

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María Gómez-Domínguez is a PhD researcher in the Department of English Philology at the University of Huelva, Spain. She holds a PhD and a BA in English Philology and several MA in language teaching from the University of Huelva. She has lectured at the University of Chester, United Kingdom (Modern Languages Department) where she has also carried out her international doctoral stay. She worked as a researcher in a R+D project on musical aptitude and foreign language learning funded by the Spanish Ministry (Musical perception and reading skills in a foreign language, FFI2010-15738) from 2010 to 2014. Her main research interests are Applied Linguistics, specifically English language teaching. She is currently investigating the relationship between reading skills and music perception in foreign language learning, is a member of ReALL (Research in affective language learning) and an English teacher at a school in Huelva.