• A sample of 18 students (9 from each class) representing high, medium and low achievers was chosen randomly to do the pre-test and post-test. The questions and format of the pre-test and post-test were identical. Students were assessed on three areas before and after the regular teaching of sight words:

Reading fluency

• Students were asked to read a story at their own pace. The number of words they processed and read aloud accurately was recorded.

• There were great improvements in reading fluency for all students in the past one and a half years.
  Pre-test performance
  Post test performance

Sight word recognition

Tests on sight word recognition showed an even more encouraging result. All students could recognise more words than in the pre-test in all lists.

• It is worth noting that towards the end of the learning process, students learned more words that appear frequently at higher levels than at lower levels. The result indicated that the learning of words, especially those that appear in the higher level lists, did not take place as naturally as teachers thought it would. Explicit teaching is needed to facilitate effective learning.

Reading comprehension

• The reading text of this comprehension test was never taught in class, but more than 55 % of the students achieved higher scores in the post-test.
• There were ten questions in the test. The best student got two correct in the pre-test but all correct in the post test. Another one had only one correct in the pre-test and seven correct in the post-test.
• There is a close correlation between reading fluency and comprehension. Proficiency in either one benefits the other.
  

Impact

• The pretest results helped teachers realise students’ weaknesses and learning needs.
• With the inclusion of sight words in daily teaching, students’ performance in word recognition, reading fluency and comprehension improved.
• With the introduction of the sight word teaching, teachers were more aware of its importance as a part of vocabulary teaching to enhance students’ reading skills.