Effectiveness of a tiered intervention model in Chinese: A growth model of reading fluency

Abstract

Purpose The present study examined the effectiveness of a tiered intervention model of reading instruction in Chinese. The research questions were whether the intervention helped to improve word reading fluency of ordinary students and poor readers, and what factors may affect the effectiveness of the intervention.

Method Participants were 620 Chinese first graders from 11 primary schools in Hong Kong. All the participants attended whole-class Tier 1 intervention from Grade 1 to Grade 2. 104 poor readers attended Tier 2 remedial intervention at Grade 2. All the participants were tested on a standardized one-minute word reading test five times from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of Grade 2.

Results As compared with the local norm, both Tier 1 and Tier students showed significant improvement after 2 years of intervention. Results of latent growth modeling showed that Tier 2 students had a steeper growth slope than Tier 1 students in Grade 2. It was found that schools using Cantonese as the medium of instruction, larger schools, and schools in higher academic banding were significantly associated to higher growth of word reading fluency.

Conclusions The present findings support that this tailor-made Chinese intervention program is very effective for improving word reading fluency of Chinese ordinary students and those with reading difficulties. For factors that may affect how well children learn to read, it appears that school resources, student academic ability, and students learning in their mother tongue are some factors for consideration.