Developing Fluent Text Processing With Practice: Memorial Influences on Fluency and Comprehension

A great deal of research has examined predictors related to the development of reading fluency and reading comprehension. Whilst a number of studies support the relationship between the development of reading fluency and subsequent improvements in reading comprehension, many studies have shown faster and more accurate decoding does not automatically lead to better comprehension. Often overlooked is the role of the text representation that is encoded in memory during reading and its influence on skilled reading comprehension. In this article, the authors review literature that explores the relationship between text representation and fluent reading. Based upon the results of this review, the authors suggest that the type of representation formed during reading is closely related to the development of both skilled reading comprehension and fluent reading.