Iranian Rehabilitation Journal

en The Role of Text Genre in Reading Fluency Components and Comprehension: Implications for Reading Assessment and Rehabilitation in Persian-Speaking Students گفتار درمانی Speech therapy پژوهشي Original Research Articles <div style="text-align: justify;">Objective:  Given the critical role of reading fluency and comprehension in academic functioning, understanding how text genre influence reading can enhance assessment and rehabilitation practices.This study aimed to examine the role of text genre in oral reading fluency components (rate and accuracy) and comprehension among Persian-speaking elementary school students. Method: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a multi-stage cluster random sampling method was used to select 260 students with typical reading development in grades 2-6 from public elementary schools in Tehran. Reading performance was measured using the KHANA-2 test, which consist of two parallel booklets (A and B), each containing 12 passages. Data from three narrative and three expository passages per booklet (12 passages in total) were analyzed. Effects of genre, grade, and their interaction were examined on rate, accuracy and comprehension, controlling for text length using Linear mixed models (LMM). Pairwise comparisons were conducted to assess grade-level differences. Results: Students performed significantly better on narrative texts than on expository ones across reading rate, accuracy, and comprehension (mean differences = 19.64, 2.19, and 12.43, respectively; all p < 0.001). Differences in reading accuracy and comprehension across genres were relatively small, whereas reading rate showed more pronounced genre-related variation. Grade level had a significant effect (p<0.001), showing a steady increase in all components from grade 2 to 6. The interaction between genre and grade level showed consistently higher scores for narrative texts across grades (p<0.001). Conclusion: Text genre significantly affects reading performance, with its strongest influence observed for reading rate and smaller effects on accuracy and comprehension. These findings highlight the necessity of considering genre differences in reading assessment and suggest that incorporating diverse text types into rehabilitation programs may enhance the effectiveness of interventions targeting reading skills.  </div> Text-Genre, Narrative Text, Expository Text, Reading Fluency, Comprehension, Persian 0 0 http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-24-7&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Zeinab Barati zei.barati@uswr.ac.ir No Student Research Committee, Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Pegah Kharazi Baheri peg.kharazi@uswr.ac.ir No Student Research Committee, Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran Atieh Ashtari at.ashtari@uswr.ac.ir Yes Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Talieh Zarifian ta.zarifian@uswr.ac.ir No Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mohsen Vahedi mo.vahedi@uswr.ac.ir No Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Substance Abuse and Dependence Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran