Most of the educational reading material primary-aged students read at school tends to fall within the informational text genre. Informational text has schematic or organizational characteristics that readers need to be access. Ability to understand informational texts (Duke, 2009) has been shown to support students with fictional text comprehension (Soalt, 2005) leading to higher reading achievement (Kletzien & Dreher, 2004). Three quasi-experimental studies investigating reading comprehension test score gains of first and second language (L1 and L2 respectively) English international primary school students (Years 2 and 6) in Hong Kong were conducted. Students were randomly assigned to one of two teaching interventions; one focused on teaching informational text schema and the other on English vocabulary building. Reading comprehension gains were measured using the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) program and researcher-designed cloze fiction and nonfiction tests. Meta-analysis of the multiple measures and treatments found greater comprehension and cloze performance due to the teaching of informational texts compared to vocabulary training; though this was more pronounced for students with English as L1.

Many research studies on English reading support that phonological awareness is crucial to reading success. This paper reports about a study which examined the effect of phonological awareness training in English reading among Hong Kong children who learn English as their second language. Participants were 5-year old children studying the last year of preschool education, the year before formal primary schooling. Children in the experimental group (184) received phonological awareness training for about 6 months while the children in the control group (166) were taught with their original English curriculum. Children in the experimental group performed significantly better in both reading–related tasks (picture naming and word reading) and reading-related skills (rhyme detection and phoneme identification). The findings indicate that phonological awareness training is beneficial to the development of English reading skills among Hong Kong children.

Traditionally, children in Hong Kong are taught to read English by reading/memorizing the whole English words followed by sentences and stores. Many research studies on English reading support that phonological awareness is crucial to reading success. A study is conducted in Hong Kong to examine the phonological awareness approach in developing English reading skills among preschool children who learn English as their second language. Participants were 5-year old children studying the last year of preschool education, the year before formal primary schooling. Children in the experimental group (182) received phonological awareness training for about 6 months while the children in the control group (166) were taught with their original English curriculum. Children in the experimental group performed significantly better in both reading-related tasks (picture naming and word reading) and reading-related skills (rhyme detection and phoneme identification). Results indicate that phonological awareness training is an effective approach to the development of English reading skills among Hong Kong children. The findings of the project will provide data to facilitate the school curriculum planning and suggest changing teaching practices in English reading so as to prevent difficulties in learning.

This paper proposes a personalised instructional strategy, student-selected vocabulary, to facilitate secondary school students' vocabulary building. It then reports how this personalised instructional strategy was implemented and evaluated through a teacher-led intervention study of 57 low-achieving Hong Kong secondary school students. Data were collected with multiple measures: student-made vocabulary cards, paper questionnaires, and personalised vocabulary tests. The findings show that these low-achieving students selected words to learn in a responsible way to meet with their academic needs and achieved good retention rates of their personalised curriculum. Evidence also shows that learner differences were catered for and well addressed in this innovative personalised vocabulary pedagogy.
[Copyright of Language and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2014.942318]

This study examined the influence of classroom pedagogic reading practices and out-of-school practices in explaining why the reading attainment of Hong Kong Grade 4 students was superior to that of their counterparts in Taiwan in the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Analyses of scores from 9301 students (4712 from Hong Kong and 4589 from Taiwan) revealed that independent reading in school made a distinctive contribution to the reading performance of Hong Kong and Taiwan students after controlling for the effects of students' and parents' reading attitudes, the availability of supportive home educational resources and student engagement in a range of reading practices. Out-of-school informational reading was found to be negatively associated with students' reading attainment for both Hong Kong and Taiwan students. There was evidence that reading aloud in class in Taiwan classrooms significantly contributed to the Taiwan students' poor reading performance.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2014.927732]

The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of two types of cooperative learning groups used in reciprocal teaching (RT) classes (i.e. high-structured vs. low-structured groups) for enhancing students' reading comprehension. The participants were 235 Hong Kong Chinese Grade 6 students in nine classes. Reading comprehension tests and questionnaires were used to investigate students' reading comprehension, teachers' cognitive support and perceptions of cooperative learning. The findings indicate that high achievers from the low-structured RT group significantly outperformed high achievers from the high-structured RT group in post-test reading comprehension, whereas low achievers from the high-structured RT group significantly outperformed low achievers from the low-structured RT group in follow-up reading comprehension. Students from the high-structured RT group reported higher scores for their perceptions of cooperative learning than students from the low-structured RT group.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.860216]