Examining university students’ English language loud reading fluency rate in Tanzania

Abstract

Reading rate is one of the important components of fluency and an indicator of comprehension. This paper is in the area of reading fluency, examining reading rate among university students in Tanzania. A total sample of 311 first-year students was involved in the study, with males constituting 49.83% and females 50.16%. These participants were sampled from the Muslim University of Morogoro, the University of Dodoma, and the University of Dar es Salaam. The study adopted Competency-Based Measurement (CBM) to determine student’s reading fluency rate, where each participant read aloud a given passage. The assessment was compared against 300 words per minute (WPM), the benchmark adopted in the study as proposed by Hasbrouck and Tindal. On average, the students read at a rate of 112 wpm with a standard deviation of 22.6. This means that the students are significantly below the standard rate. This situation is probably because students did not receive adequate training in English reading skills during their elementary levels. Reading rate is usually linked with comprehension; therefore, if they still struggle with reading speed, they are likely to face challenges in understanding complex texts, which are common at the university level.