The decoding process is an important but time-consuming step in reading. When you decode a word, you match letters and groups of letters in each written word with phonetic sounds and larger meanings to grasp the overall meaning of the word. The first step to developing fluency is to make the decoding process automatic, so it consumes almost no time at all. Though the elimination of decoding time is not possible for all or even most words, it is possible for high frequency words. Memorizing the appearance and meaning of high frequency words, or learning to recognize them by sight, greatly contributes to reading fluency in young children.
Repetition is the key to learning sight words. The easiest way to memorize anything is to repeat it until it becomes effortless and automatic. Getting as much practice as possible with reading and identifying high frequency words is the key to being able to recognize them on sight. Many schoolteachers employ repetition practice almost daily in their reading activities. They gradually add high frequency words to a word bank and practice defining, spelling and recognizing these words in class. Some examples of repetition activities include highlighting frequency words in printed materials, performing timed reading sessions and playing word games.
Writing also has an influence on reading fluency. Encouraging students to write down high frequency words as part of a class activity helps them associate spatial shapes with verbal sounds and abstract meanings, which can further solidify the meaning and appearance of certain words in the brain. Along with repetition, activities that involve writing down high frequency words can help young readers quicken the decoding process and turn those words into sight words.
Of course, reading fluency does not simply involve decoding and memorizing individual words. To gain fluency, readers must be able to take in several words strung into a sentence. Not only must the individual words be recognized and understood, the entire sentence must also be quickly analyzed and interpreted. The bridge between learning sight words and cultivating reading fluency is to practice using and understanding sight words in the context of phrases, then sentences and finally whole passages. Once this skill is cultivated, readers continue to use it long after their elementary school lessons end.