The Urdu Reading Test (URT): Precise and Valuable Tool for the Assessment of Urdu Reading Skills of Hearing Impaired Students

Abstract

Major objective of this study is to develop a precise and valuable Urdu Reading Test (URT) to judge the Urdu reading abilities of hearing impaired students of grade third. These students suffer from such Urdu reading problems of which they lag behind hearing children. These difficulties lead towards the low comprehension of the text for these students. Descriptive research design of quantitative research paradigms was used to conduct this study. The Urdu Reading Test (URT) was developed by the researchers to know the Urdu reading abilities of students who are hearing disabled. The tool was validated from field experts and piloted to 104 hearing impaired students of grade 3rd to check the reliability which was noted α=.94. Data was analyzed to check the frequencies on the basis of different variables. Item analysis of the URT was done to judge the item discrimination index, item difficulty index as well as distractor effect. The final URT is much supportive for the assessment of Urdu reading skill of hearing impaired students.