Lack of vocabulary has long been a common difficulty faced by students in reading. In addition to the teaching of discrete vocabulary items, teachers have become more aware of the importance of equipping students with necessary vocabulary building skills. However, support for the acquisition of sight words is still insufficient in many schools.

Some teachers may hold the misconception that sight words appear so frequently in texts that students should have no difficulty learning them. Hence, they tend to spend more time teaching content words which they think are more important. Research has revealed that this is not necessarily the case. It is necessary to teach high frequency words explicitly and make them part of students’ sight vocabulary in order to enhance their reading fluency and comprehension.

Curriculum leaders at Cheung Chau Sacred Heart School have been working hard recently aiming to raise students’ literacy. They were keen to try out and adopt different teaching strategies to help stretch students further.

The LLSS Officer introduced the teaching of sight words in 2007/2008 to Primary 3 students and the teaching of the lists was completed in 2008/2009. Teachers saw a positive impact on student learning soon after the implementation of the project; teachers of other levels also tried out teaching sight words and found it effective.