Developing a reading fluency instrument for bilingual primary school children in Singapore

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that reading fluency is one of the defining characteristics of good readers (Klauda & Guthrie, 2008) and a reliable predictor of reading comprehension (Torgesen, Rashotte, & Alexander, 2001; Roehrig, Petscher, Nettles, Hudson, & Torgesen, 2008). Differences in reading fluency not only distinguish good readers from poor, but a lack of reading fluency may also emerge as the next hurdle poor readers face on their way to reading proficiency (Torgesen et al., 2001; Torgesen, Rashotte, Alexander, Alexander, & MacPhee, 2003). Moreover, the administration of a reading fluency test is easy and uncomplicated, hence the reading fluency test has gained popularity in assessing and monitoring reading development among school age children (Traylor, Price, & Meisinger, 2011). However, most of the studies concentrated on English-speaking children, and the only Chinese reading fluency test available does not have a parallel form (Li & Wu, 2015; Wu et al., 2009). Furthermore, little research has focused on English-Malay bilingual children and no Malay reading fluency test has been published. Hence, there is a pressing need to add to the existing reading fluency measurements by developing a Chinese parallel version as well as two Malay versions.