Pixel International Conferences

The reading competence has a determining influence on personal, social and academic success. To read aloud it is necessary that the child develops a fluency in reading. For Walker, Mokhtari and Sargent (2006, in Tristan, 2009) there are three key attributes for fluent reading: performance attributes, which include aspects such as precision, speed, and prosody; competence attributes, namely phonological and morphological awareness, knowledge of syntax and structure of discourse, and metacognitive competence regarding reading; and, finally, dispositional attributes, that are, attitudes towards reading, self-perception as a reader and reading habits. Esteves (2013) summarizes three dimensions of fluency in reading aloud: accuracy, speed and prosody. The precision refers to the correct decoding of the words of the text, that is, for correction in the reading. Speed, in turn, is related to the decoding of words, using the minimum of attention resources; finally, prosody corresponds to the rhythm and expressiveness used when reading a text, while extracting its meaning. From here it is possible to see the advantages that the practice of reading aloud can bring to the students, namely the development of questions related to the oral expression, the motivation to the reading; and reflection on the need to understand the text read, since this understanding (or lack thereof) will be mirrored in reading aloud (Silva, 2013). It is understood that reading aloud should, for the reasons given, take a prominent place in the classroom. The present study intends to know the perceptions of 1st CEB teachers regarding the importance they confer to the practices of reading aloud in the classroom, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to know the practices they develop, even in the sense of to see if they know changes due to the year of schooling taught.

Keywords: fluency, reading aloud, perceptions and practices of teachers.

References:

[1] Esteves, S. (2013). Fluência na Leitura: Da Avaliação à Intervenção – Guia Pedagógico. Viseu: Psicosoma.
[2] Silva, F. (2013) A leitura em voz alta - Contributo da utilização de Podcast para o desenvolvimento da fluência (dissertação de mestrado não publicada). Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Setúbal.
[3] Tristão, F. (2009). Avaliação da Fluência de Leitura Oral em Alunos de 2º Ano do 1º Ciclo (dissertação de mestrado não publicada). Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação – Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa.