363 COMMENTARY Prosody, Pacing, and Situational Fluency (or Why Fluency Matters for Older Readers) Melanie R. Kuhn, Paula J. Schwanenflugel Fluency contributes to comprehension and skilled reading as part of the navigation of complex texts. T he importance of fluency in reading instruction over the past two decades has resembled that of a bell curve, going from rarely considered to cen- tral and back again. During this time, the predominant view of fluency has been fairly narrow, as have the cor- responding assessments and recommendations for in- struction (Kuhn, Schwanenflugel, & Meisinger, 2010). However, fluency’s significance in both the reading process and the literacy curriculum, especially beyond the primary grades, is more apparent when applying a broader view of the construct, one that clarifies why flu- ency is an important factor in students’ ability to negoti- ate complex texts successfully. Although other definitions exist, fluency has been most commonly equated to accurate and automatic word reading (e.g., Samuels, 2006; Walker, Mokhtari, & Sargent, 2012). To a large extent, this definition is both reflected in and promoted by the dominant forms of fluency assessment (e.g., DIBELS, AIMSweb) and in- struction (e.g., repeated reading) in place over the past 20-plus years as well. In each of these cases, the pri- mary focus was on increasing students’ reading rate as a means of improving their overall literacy ability. However, we think that the focus on reading rate comes at the expense of other components of literacy learning and has led to a number of negative conse- quences (e.g., Applegate, Applegate, & Modla, 2009). For example, as reading rate came to be seen as a proxy for global reading success, students were encouraged to increase the number of correct words they read per minute rather than focus on improving their under- standing of a text. In fact, if students slowed down to ponder what they were reading under these conditions, they were less likely seen as skilled readers than their peers who were reading faster but not comprehending as well. Rather than view fluency as comprised of accuracy and automaticity for its own sake, we consider it critical to take a more nuanced view, both in terms of fluency as a construct and its importance in the reading pro- cess—one that emphasizes pacing, understanding, and knowledge building rather than racing through a text (Kuhn et al., 2010). In the following sections, we discuss a broader definition of fluency and its implication for instruction, which includes exploring prosody, pacing, situational fluency, and the importance of wide reading in helping to close the achievement gap. In this way, we highlight how and why fluency plays a critical role for adolescent and adult readers. Defining Fluency Although accuracy and automaticity are part of fluent reading, they are not the whole picture. Instead, we argue that a fluent reader is one who uses appropri- ate prosody as well. Prosody, when considered in con- nected text, incorporates multiple elements, including stress, pitch, and appropriate phrasing (Kuhn & Stahl, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Vol. 62 No. 4 pp. 363–368 doi: 10.1002/jaal.867 © 2018 International Literacy Association MELANIE R. KUHN is the Jean Adamson Stanley Faculty Chair in Literacy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA; email melaniek@purdue.edu. PAULA J. SCHWANENFLUGEL is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at The University of Georgia, Athens, USA; email pschwan@ uga.edu.