What developmental aspect is promoted when students engage in paired-reading activities?

Paired-reading activities significantly enhance reading rate and automaticity among students. When two individuals engage in reading together, one often takes on a supportive role, which allows the other to focus on decoding and fluency without becoming overly challenged. This collaborative experience fosters an environment where one student can model fluent reading, which the other can emulate, thereby improving their own reading speed and recognition of words.

As students practice reading aloud with a partner, they also build confidence and reduce anxiety, leading to increased opportunities for practice in a more relaxed setting. This consistent engagement allows for repeated exposure to words and phrases, which is essential for developing automaticity—the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly without needing to decode them each time.

While paired-reading activities may contribute to other skills such as comprehension, critical thinking, and phonemic awareness to some extent, the primary focus on promoting reading rate and automaticity is what makes this method particularly effective.