C u r r e n t R e s e a r c h IN READING /LANGUAGE ARTS FLUENCY: THE BRIDGE FROM DECODING TO READING COMPREHENSION JOHN J. PIKULSKI DAVID J. CHARD INTRODUCTION Fluency, which has been referred to as a “neglected” and “ignored” aspect of reading (National Reading Panel , 2000), is receiving substan- tial attention at this time from both researchers and practitioners. This attention may stem, at least in part, from the fact that the highly influential Report of the National Reading Panel discusses fluency as one of only five critical components of the reading process. Definitions of Reading Fluency The National Reading Panel report defines reading fluency as “…the ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression” (p. 3–5). All three dimensions appear critical to a full definition of reading fluency (Dowhower , 1991). The fact that two of the three dimensions of fluency, accuracy and expressiveness, can be observed only through oral reading may have contributed to the limited amount of attention that fluency received until recently. Fluency was seen essentially as a word recognition and oral reading phenomenon, and the importance of oral reading pales dramatically in comparison to that of silent reading comprehension. Except, per- haps, as beginning readers in school, we spend a miniscule amount of time doing expressive oral reading as compared to silent reading comprehension. The Literacy Dictionary: The Vocabulary of Reading and Writing, on the other hand, defines fluency as “freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension” (Harris and Hodges, 1995, p. 85). Samuels, a pioneer in research and theo- ry in reading fluency, cites the alteration and enlargement of the construct of fluency to include reading comprehension as a major force in elevating the importance of the construct in the field of read- ing. He notes, “To experience good reading compre- hension, the reader must be able to identify words quickly and easily” (Samuels, 2002, p. 167). The correlation between fluency and reading comprehension was clearly established by a