BACKGROUND There is increasing evidence defining reading competency in terms of accuracy, speed and prosody, as well as interest in gaining better understanding of the interrelation as a function of prosodic features. This study aims to analyze the relationship between reading competency, in terms of accuracy and speed of written word recognition, and two attributes related to prosody in oral reading of texts: speech rate and rhythm. METHOD Oral reading of a narrative text by 141 third and fourth grade Spanish-speaking students was analyzed using an automated acoustic speech procedure and their reading competency was assessed. RESULTS Reading proficiency was associated with a lower proportion of the number and duration of pauses and greater regularity of syllable intervals, resulting in a higher rate of speech and higher regularity of rhythm. The reading experience improves rhythmic reading with some independence from the levels of automation achieved in written word recognition. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that when there is greater reading competence there is greater speed and rhythmic expressiveness; this improves with reading experience when a sufficient level of automation has been achieved in reading access.

中文翻译：

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阅读能力、语速和节奏。

背景技术有越来越多的证据在准确性、速度和韵律方面定义阅读能力，并且有兴趣更好地理解作为韵律特征的函数的相互关系。本研究旨在分析阅读能力（在书面单词识别的准确性和速度方面）与口语阅读文本中与韵律相关的两个属性之间的关系：语速和节奏。方法 使用自动声学语音程序分析 141 名三年级和四年级讲西班牙语的学生对叙事文本的口头阅读，并评估他们的阅读能力。结果 阅读能力与停顿次数和持续时间的比例较低以及音节间隔的规律性有关，从而导致更高的语速和更高的节奏规律。阅读体验提高了有节奏的阅读，与书面文字识别中实现的自动化水平有一定的独立性。结论 结果表明，阅读能力越强，速度和节奏表现力就越强；当阅读访问达到足够的自动化水平时，这会随着阅读体验而改善。