How Are the Essential Components of Reading Interrelated?

The four components need to be taught intentionally, ensuring that learners have competency in more foundational skills (such as decoding print and knowing the meaning of words) to become proficient in more complex skills (such as fluency with connected text and creating meaning from texts).

While the four components are essential in early reading instruction and are most easily defined as separate skills, the ability to read beyond the word level involves understanding how the components are interrelated.

Remember...

A weakness in one reading component can interfere with the proficiency of the others.
A weakness in one or more of the reading components will interfere with overall reading progress.

Using the codes below, read more about ways the components are interrelated.

A=ALPHABETICS V=VOCABULARY

F=FLUENCY C=COMPREHENSION

Interrelationship Set One

A & F: Readers must read words accurately and automatically (A) to read text fluently (F)
A & V: Readers must know word parts (A) to decode and recognize meanings of words (V)
F & C: Readers must read text accurately, at an efficient rate, and in phrases (F) to understand meaning (C)

Interrelationship Set Two

V & A: Readers must have familiarity with words (V) to decode, recognize, or self-correct them accurately (A)
V & C: If readers do not know word meanings (V), they soon lose text meaning (C)
C & V: If readers struggle to understand the meaning (C), they have difficulty learning new words from text (V)

The components can be taught in ways that illuminate the interconnections so that adult learners are equipped with the basic knowledge, skills, and problem-solving strategies they need to meet their learning goals.

Click "Next" to practice identifying specific interrelationships that may be causing a reader's struggle.