The authors synthesized comparisons of bilinguals’ and monolinguals’ performance in six executive domains using 891 effects size from 152 studies on adults. Before correcting estimates for observed publication bias, our analyses revealed a small bilingual advantage for inhibition, shifting, and working memory, but not for monitoring or attention. No evidence for a bilingual advantage remained after correcting for bias.

Authors: Minna Lehtonen, Anna Soveri, Aini Laine, Janica Järvenpää, Angela de Bruin & Jan Antfolk

Source: Lehtonen, M., Soveri, A., Laine, A., Järvenpää, J., de Bruin, A. & Antfolk, J. (2018). Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 144(4), 394-425, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000142

The authors synthesized comparisons of bilinguals’ and monolinguals’ performance in six executive domains using 891 effects size from 152 studies on adults. Before correcting estimates for observed publication bias, our analyses revealed a small bilingual advantage for inhibition, shifting, and working memory, but not for monitoring or attention. No evidence for a bilingual advantage remained after correcting for bias. For verbal fluency, the analyses indicated a small bilingual disadvantage. The available evidence does not provide systematic support for that bilingualism is associated with benefits in cognitive control functions in adults.

• Executive functions (EF) is an umbrella term for high-level cognitive control functions that are involved in all complex mental activities, and therefore are of particular importance to human behaviour.
• The most frequently postulated EF components are working memory, inhibition, and set shifting.
• The field has not reached consensus on the nature and extent of the putative bilingual advantage.
• Theoretically, the bilingual advantage is assumed to stem from the demands that the use of two languages places on the cognitive control system.
• Previous meta-analysis and systematic reviews on the relationship between bilingualism and particular aspects of EF have reported varying results.

The study

In this meta-analysis, the currently available literature on bilingualism and EF in adults was reviewed. Compared to previous systematic reviews, this meta-analysis is considerably more wide-ranging in the number of included studies and in the domains, tasks, and background variables investigated, and unpublished studies were included.

Research questions:

1. In which EF domain do we observe a bilingual advantage?
2. Are possible advantages specific to some task paradigms?
3. Are possible advantages of different magnitude in verbal or nonverbal tasks?
4. Are observed advantages affected by how participant groups have been matched for age, SES, vocabulary knowledge, or IQ?
5. Is there a larger advantage in older than younger bilingual adults?
6. Does age of acquisition (AoA) or proficiency in L2 or immigration status moderate the advantages?
7. Does the country in which the study was conducted or language pairs of the bilinguals moderate the effects?

The data included a total of 891 effect sizes from 152 studies.

Conclusions

• No systematic evidence was found of a bilingual advantage in adults in any of the EF domains after correcting for an observed publication bias.
• More specifically, the initial analysis across all EF domains estimated a small positive difference in favour of bilinguals, corresponding to less than 1% of the explained variation in outcomes, and this difference was the likely result of bias that remained in the data after removing outliers.
• After correcting for the remaining bias, the analysis across all EF domains no longer estimated any difference between monolinguals and bilinguals.
• Before accounting for bias in the data, the analysis focusing on each EF domain separately estimated small differences in favour of bilinguals for inhibitory control, shifting, and WM, and a small difference in favour of monolinguals was estimated for verbal fluency.
• After correcting for bias, no bilingual advantages were seen in any of the investigated EF domains.
• In fact, only a small bilingual disadvantage for verbal fluency and a smaller bilingual disadvantage for attention remained.

A comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of bilingualism on working memory (WM) capacity was conducted. Results from 88 effect sizes, 27 independent studies, and 2,901 participants revealed a small to medium population effect size of 0.20 in favour of greater WM capacity for bilinguals than monolinguals.

Authors: John G. Grundy & Kalinka Timmer

Source: Grundy, J.G. & Timmer, K. (2017). Bilingualism and working memory capacity: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Second Language Research, 33(3), 325-340, DOI: 10.1177/0267658316678286

A comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of bilingualism on working memory (WM) capacity was conducted. Results from 88 effect sizes, 27 independent studies, and 2,901 participants revealed a small to medium population effect size of 0.20 in favour of greater WM capacity for bilinguals than monolinguals. This suggests that experience managing two languages that compete for selection results in greater WM capacity over time. Moderator analyses revealed that the largest effects were observed in children than in other age groups. In addition, whether the task was performed in the first (L1) or second (L2) language for bilinguals moderated the effect size of the bilingual advantage.

• Bilingualism has been associated with the enhancement of multiple executive functions (EFs), including cognitive flexibility, efficiency, task-switching, and conflict resolution.
• This is believed to be the result of lifelong experience managing multiple languages that compete for selection.
• Substantial evidence exists that both languages are activated in the bilingual brain even when only one language is being used.
• Managing languages that compete for selection requires resources from WM, and continual use of WM resources might lead to enhanced WM capacity over time in order to ensure the efficiency of processing in the future.
• Recent models of WM share the view that it is constructed of multiple component processes that rely heavily on selective attention.
• Learning a second language across the lifespan necessarily involves selective and sustained attention that operate on perceptual and long-term memory information.

The study

The present study performed a comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of bilingualism on working memory capacity to reveal an estimate of the population effect size. Furthermore, the authors were able to examine age, the linguistic nature of the task, and the language in which the task was performed as potential moderating variables.

The data included a total of 88 effect sizes from 27 independent studies with a total sample involving 2,901 participants.

Conclusions

• The authors propose that second language experience has a positive effect on WM capacity.
• The bilingual advantage appeared to be strongest in children.
• When bilinguals performed the task in their L1, they performed better than monolinguals, but when they performed the task in their L2, they performed worse than monolinguals.
• This exemplifies the importance of ensuring that both groups are performing the task in their dominant language.

The findings of this study showed that high academic buoyancy indirectly predicted lower avoidance behaviour, fewer failure expectations, and higher task-oriented planning via academic emotions. High academic buoyancy was related to high enjoyment and hope as well as low boredom and hopelessness, which further predicted low failure expectations. The findings suggest that academic buoyancy supports positive expectations and adaptive behaviours in learning situations through the regulation of emotions.

Authors: Riikka Hirvonen, David W. Putwain, Sami Määttä, Timo Ahonen & Noona Kiuru

Source: Hirvonen, R., Putwain, D.W., Määttä, S., Ahonen, T., & Kiuru, N. (2020). The role of academic buoyancy and emotions in students’ learning-related expectations and behaviours in primary school. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 948-963. DOI:10.1111/bjep.12336

This study investigated the extent to which academic buoyancy predicts students’ failure expectations, avoidance behaviour, and task-oriented planning in learning situations, and to what extent academic emotions mediate the effect of academic buoyancy on these expectations and behaviours. The sample consisted of 845 Finnish students in the sixth grade of primary school. The findings showed that high academic buoyancy indirectly predicted lower avoidance behaviour, fewer failure expectations, and higher task-oriented planning via academic emotions. High academic buoyancy was related to high enjoyment and hope as well as low boredom and hopelessness, which further predicted low failure expectations. The findings suggest that academic buoyancy supports positive expectations and adaptive behaviours in learning situations through the regulation of emotions.

• Previous studies have shown learning-related beliefs and behaviours play a significant role in learning.
• It may be presumed that learning-related expectations and behaviours are influenced by previous learning experiences.

The mediating role of academic emotions

• Academic emotions are defined as emotions that relate directly to achievement activities or outcomes.
• Outcome emotions are related to anxiety of possible failure and pride of previous success.
• Activity emotions are related to boredom or enjoyment of learning.
• Valence of emotions differentiates between positive versus negative emotions, and activation of emotions refers to the level of physiological activation that emotions invoke.
• The control–value theory suggests that different outcome- and activity-related emotions are the function of students’ control and value appraisals.
• Positive activating emotions (such as enjoyment of learning, hope, and pride) can promote motivation, effort, use of adaptive learning strategies, and self-regulated learning.

Transition to lower secondary school in Finland

• The present study focused on students in the last grade of primary school before their important transition to lower secondary school.
• In Finland, this transition takes place at 12 or 13 years of age.
• In addition to going through biological, cognitive, and psychological changes related to puberty, students at this age face changes in their daily life at school as a result of the school transition.
• They move from a classroom teacher system to a subject teacher system, start to study new subjects, and often change to another school.
• As a result of these changes, students’ motivation and effort can decrease and negative attitudes towards school increase during the school transition.

The present study

The present study examined the role of seven academic emotions as mediators in the relationship between academic buoyancy and learning-related expectations and behaviours. Of these emotions, three were positive activating (enjoyment, hope, and pride), two were negative activating (anxiety and shame), and two were negative deactivating (boredom and hopelessness).

Hypotheses:

1. Buoyancy was expected to relate positively to positive emotions and negatively to negative emotions.
2. High enjoyment, hope, and pride were expected to further relate to low levels of avoidance behaviour and failure expectations as well as high task-oriented planning.
3. Boredom and hopelessness were expected to be related to high avoidance behaviour, high failure expectations, and low task-oriented planning.
4. It was expected that anxiety and shame would have positive effects on task-oriented planning and negative effects on avoidance behaviour and failure expectations.

Methods

Participants were 845 Finnish sixth-grade students with an age range at the beginning of the study of 11.6–14.8 years. Two trained testers collected the data in the classrooms on normal school days in the autumn (T1) and spring (T2) of Grade 6.

Conclusions

• The results show that the effect of high buoyancy at the beginning of sixth grade on low avoidance behaviour, low failure expectations, and high task-oriented planning at the end of the sixth grade was fully mediated by students’ emotions.
• The findings suggest that an adaptive role for buoyancy in relation to positive academic outcomes is partly achieved through the regulation of academic emotions.
• Interestingly, pride, anxiety, and shame were not found to mediate the effect of academic buoyancy on learning-related beliefs and behaviours.
• The findings highlight the importance of positive-activating emotions in supporting primary school students’ adaptive learning-related beliefs and behaviours and the role of negative deactivating emotions in increasing maladaptive beliefs and behaviours.
• According to control–value theory, students’ appraisals of their subjective control over learning situations and outcomes are crucial for the arousal of positive and negative emotions.
• The sense of this subjective control could be reinforced by rehearsing academic buoyancy.
• Buoyancy could be a fruitful target of intervention studies in promoting students’ positive learning experiences, adaptive functioning, and performance at school.
• Attention should be paid to students’ positive emotional experiences at school, their feelings of being in control of their learning, and their skills and confidence to overcome challenges, because these promote students’ enjoyment of learning and their effort with learning tasks.

This intervention study was conducted to document conditions under which a computer-based literacy game (GraphoGame) could enhance the literacy skills of first-grade students in an African city. The game demonstrated a positive effect for the spelling test. The most effective intervention combined exposure of both the teachers and the students to the game.

Authors: Jacqueline Jere-Folotiya, Tamara Chansa-Kabali, Jonathan C. Munachaka, Francis Sampa, Christopher Yalukanda, Jari Westerholm, Ulla Richardson, Robert Serpell & Heikki Lyytinen

Source: Jere-Folotiya, J., Chansa-Kabali, T., Munachaka, J.C., Sampa, F., Yalukanda, C., Westerholm, J., Richardson, U., Serpell, R., & Lyytinen, H. (2014). The effect of using a mobile literacy game to improve literacy levels of grade one students in Zambian schools. Educational Technology Research and Development, 62, 417-436. DOI: 10.1007/s11423-014-9342-9

This intervention study was conducted to document conditions under which a computer-based literacy game (GraphoGame) could enhance the literacy skills of first-grade students in an African city. The participants were 573 first-grade students from government schools who were randomly sampled into control (n = 314) and various intervention (n = 259) groups. GraphoGame was admistered on mobile phones to students at their school under supervision. There was a positive effect of the game for the Spelling test. The most effective intervention combined exposure of both teachers and students to the game. Initial letter knowledge was a good predictor of final letter knowledge on GraphoGame.

• Literacy is a major cultural resource for effective communication and an essential skill for individuals to prosper in a modern society.
• The proportion of school students in Zambia achieving even the minimal expected standard of literacy by Grades 5 and 6 is exceptionally low, with only 32.3% of students attaining minimal acceptable mastery of skills and knowledge.
• In an attempt to improve reading levels, the Government of Zambia introduced a new educational policy: Primary Reading Program (PRP), which requires the seven Zambian official languages should be used for teaching initial literacy, depending on the geographical location.
• The PRP works on the premise that the orthography of the Bantu languages of Zambia is transparent or consistent in nature.
• Transparent alphabetic codes are much easier to teach and learn.
• Reading improvements have been documented since the introduction of the PRP.
• For example, an increase from 23% to over 60% has been reported in achieving minimal standards in the local languages in Grade 5.

The present study

This paper reports on the findings of an applied research project entitled Reading Support for Zambian Children (RESUZ). The objective was to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a supplementary, computer-mediated learning resource in the form of a phonics game (GraphoGame) played on a hand-held device (mobile phone).

The goals of the study were as follows:

1. To examine the effectiveness of the desktop computer or mobile phone-based phonics game (GraphoGame) in improving initial literacy skills of first-grade students in the context of prevailing conditions as a supplementary resource for literacy instruction in Zambian public schools.
2. To establish which of several methods of providing intervention (students only, teachers only, or a combination of both) was most effective.
3. To investigate the influence of initial letter knowledge and amount of time playing GraphoGame on final letter knowledge.

Methods

Participants were 573 students (age range 5-9 years, 52.4% females) and their teachers (n = 68). In the post-test, 312 students participated. The participants were randomly selected from 42 government schools in the Lusaka District. Within each school, two Grade 1 classes were randomly selected and randomly assigned to either a control or intervention class. Six students were then randomly sampled from each classroom.

GraphoGame

• The game provides a computer-mediated online environment for learning letter–sound correspondences developed in Finland.
• The game provides an index of initial letter knowledge based on assessment of the child’s letter knowledge before they play the game.
• It provides an index of final letter knowledge after the child has played the game.
• The focus of the training was initially letter–sound knowledge and the steps needed thereafter for learning to read (if the training is to continue over a prolonged period).

Conclusions

• The findings provide evidence that GraphoGame is a tool that can be used to help Zambian students learn to read by enhancing their letter–sound knowledge.
• The effect of playing the game is greater when teachers are introduced to letter–sound knowledge in ciNyanja to avoid interference from English letter names.
• The PRP used in Zambian schools emphasises letter-sound correspondence as basic introduction to literacy.
• This means that these two approaches (the PRP course and GraphoGame) can complement each other in the teaching of basic literacy to students—especially in the early grades.
• The results lead the authors to recommend that GraphoGame can be used as a tool to supplement the teaching of literacy in Zambian schools.
• Interventions that use the game should focus on both students and teachers.

In 17 sub-Saharan countries, fewer than half of all children are learning basic reading skills. Among the key reasons for this are the inadequate number of trained teachers and the high child-to-teacher ratios in schools. Further, because of differences in the orthography of languages, choice of language in early literacy instruction can have a considerable effect on learning outcomes.

Authors: Heikki Lyytinen, Emma Ojanen, Jacqueline Jere-Folotiya, Stella Damaris Ngorosho, Francis Sampa, Pamela February, Flora Malasi, Jonathan Munachaka, Christopher Yalukanda, Kenneth Pugh & Robert Serpel

Source: Lyytinen, H., Ojanen, E., Jere-Folotiya, J., Damaris Ngorosho, S., Sampa, F., February, P., Malasi, F., Munachaka, J., Yalukanda, C., Pugh, K., & Serpel, R. (2019). Challenges Associated with Reading Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Promotion of Literacy in Multilingual Contexts. In Spaull, Nic; Comings, John (Eds.) Improving Early Literacy Outcomes: Curriculum, Teaching, and Assessment, IBE on Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment, 4. Leiden: Brill Sense, 119-132. DOI: 10.1163/9789004402379_007

Of the 650 million children of primary school age worldwide, at least 250 million are not learning basic skills in reading and mathematics. Of these children, approximately 130 million had attended school for several years. In 17 sub-Saharan countries, fewer than half of all children are learning the basics. For instance, in 2007, 44% of Grade 6 learners in Zambia were assessed as functionally illiterate. Among the key reasons for this are the inadequate number of trained teachers and the high child-to-teacher ratios in schools. Further, because of differences in the orthography of languages, choice of language in early literacy instruction can have a considerable effect on learning outcomes. In the following, the present situation in Africa is illustrated and how new technology could be used to support literacy learning is discussed.

Effects of language policy in literacy instruction

• Africa is the only continent in which children start school in a foreign language of which their teachers may not have a competent command.
• Use of familiar languages is an important factor for human rights and preservation of cultural values. Moreover, it promotes inclusiveness in education, as it allows children to use the language they commonly speak.
• It is likely that lack of awareness of the strong impact of language on the ability to learn to read has affected education policy.
• In 1996, a new policy was announced (implemented in 2000), introducing literacy in first grade in one of seven indigenous African languages, followed by a gradual transition to English in later primary grades.
• The new curriculum combined two major technical advantages for ease of initial learning: local language familiarity and orthographic transparency.
• Initial pilot projects in two rural districts comparing the new curriculum with the pre-existing English-medium immersion scheme yielded very encouraging results. However, implementation of the policy nationwide has failed to maintain this finding.
• It is important that teachers receive adequate and effective training in the correct use phonics-based instruction methods and in how to support learners in building literacy skills, from letter-sound knowledge to reading fluency.
• Many teachers, despite receiving orientation training on the new Primary Literacy Programme, still continue to use ‘look and say’ literacy instruction recalled from their own English language literacy instruction, instead of using the phonics-based approach more suited to local Zambian languages. This may be because they receive inadequate training in the local language phonics.
• English letter names and the correct local language phonemes are pronounced in inconsistent ways. This can slow down learning for all children and pose a particular risk for children who have learning difficulties.

Mobile learning games can improve literacy

• In present-day Africa, mobile phones offer an affordable and easy-to-use gateway to reading material, and access to the Internet gives a person more reading material than in any physical library.
• Educational games can provide users with new opportunities to learn basic scholastic skills and access to new learning materials through which to acquire full literacy.
• GraphoGame (GG) was designed based on the findings from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Dyslexia (JLD) study.
• A key finding of the study was that the degree of early letter knowledge was the best predictor of later learning difficulties in reading.
• The most efficient way to support children with reading difficulties in transparent writing environments is to provide them with practice in letter-sound (not letter name) knowledge.
• In GG, over 20 language adaptations currently exist.
• By adapting to players’ performance, GG allows each player to receive individualised learning content during the game.
• The game can be used on multiple platforms, including desktop computers and smartphones/tablets.
• Pedagogically, GG teaches children grapheme–phoneme connections (sounds, syllables, and word formation) based on synthetic and analytic phonics instruction by constantly adapting to the particular player’s skill level.
• The aim of such adaptability is to keep the training optimally challenging for the child concerned and to ensure that the child receives mostly positive feedback.
• Because of the similarity between the orthography of the Finnish language and many local languages in Africa, GG could be well suited for use in providing additional support for learning basic reading skills.
• A study by Jere-Folotiya et al. (2014) documented how the greatest effects of playing GG were attained when both the Grade 1 teachers and their learners in the urban areas of Lusaka were exposed to the game.
• It was observed that teachers could use the game to improve their letter–sound knowledge in the local language, knowledge essential to imparting basic literacy skills to early grade learners.

Education policy needs to be based on research

• The lack of text books and the shortage of trained teachers using the languages are among the biggest obstacles to using local languages in the classroom.
• Short school hours and high teacher–student ratios severely compromise teachers’ abilities to give enough attention to struggling readers.
• Mobile technology could be one way to provide additional support.
• It should be acknowledged that because of the effect orthography has in reading acquisition, policy on language instruction has much wider implications than has previously been acknowledged.
• Children can learn early literacy skills relatively quickly and easily if instruction is in their mother tongue, or if the orthography in question is consistent with their mother tongue or a familiar language.
• Using local African languages and training teachers to use phonics-based reading instruction methods could improve literacy rates across the continent and decrease the risk of children dropping out of school.

The present study examined the predictors of fourth-grade learners’ reading skills (reading comprehension, text reading and word chain reading). The results showed that children’s letter knowledge at the beginning of kindergarten was the most powerful predictor of their reading skills at the end of Grade 4. Other predictors were metacognitive awareness, gender, mother’s level of education, and visual attention.

Authors: Ulla Leppänen, Kaisa Aunola, Pekka Niemi & Jari-Erik Nurmi

Source: Leppänen, U., Aunola, K., Niemi, P., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2008). Letter knowledge predicts Grade 4 reading fluency and reading comprehension. Learning and Instruction, 18, 548-564. DOI: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.11.004

The present study examined the predictors of fourth-grade learners’ reading skills (reading comprehension, text reading and word chain reading). The reading skill antecedents of 158 children aged 5–6 years were measured at the beginning of kindergarten. Students’ reading skills were measured in kindergarten and again in Grades 1 and 4. The results showed that children’s letter knowledge at the beginning of kindergarten was the most powerful predictor of their reading skills at the end of Grade 4. Other predictors were metacognitive awareness, gender, mother’s level of education, and visual attention.

• Decoding skills are of great importance in the early stage of the reading career, because they provide a basis for automaticity in word recognition.
• Skilled reading is a combination of accurate and automatic decoding that frees resources so that the meaning of what is being read can be understood.

Fluent reading and reading comprehension

• Reading fluency has been suggested to be the product of the development of two components: accuracy and automaticity.
• Once decoding is accurate and automatic, more of the readers’ resources can be invested in comprehension.
• Reading comprehension requires the meaning of particular sentences to be derived together with text-modelling processes that are based on general knowledge and inference-drawing ability.
• Listening comprehension skills are suggested to be an important antecedent of reading comprehension.
• Metacognitive skills, such as the ability to monitor and evaluate one’s own progress in a particular task, are associated with reading comprehension skills.
• Naming speed has been suggested to play a role in both reading comprehension and reading fluency.

Orthographic nature of Finnish

• The highly regular correspondence between letters and sounds in Finnish makes it one of the most orthographically-shallow languages.
• In Finland, primary school begins when children are 7 years old.
• Reading is taught through phonics, for which the learning of sound-letter correspondence is important.
• Reading instruction includes letter recognition, listening, segmenting, and blending phonemes and syllables.

Present study

The present study examined the following research questions:

1. To what extend do letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension (measured at the beginning of kindergarten) predict children’s text and word chain reading and reading comprehension at the end of Grade 4?
2. To what extent do other cognitive abilities (such as metacognitive awareness and visual attention) predict text and word chain reading and reading comprehension at the end of Grade 4?
3. To what extent does mother’s educational level predict children’s text and word chain reading and reading comprehension at the end of Grade 4?
4. To what extent is gender associated with text and word chain reading and reading comprehension at the end of Grade 4?
5. At what stage of the reading career do the different antecedents begin to operate?
6. Would controlling for rapid serial naming and general cognitive ability change the results?

Method

This study is part of the Jyväskylä Entrance into Primary School (JEPS) Study conducted by Nurmi and Aunola from 1999 to 2004. The aim of the study was to investigate the development of a broad range of cognitive, social, and motivational factors among children moving from kindergarten to primary school. The sample of the present study consisted of 196 children (92 girls, 104 boys) who participated during autumn term (Time 1) and spring term (Time 2) of kindergarten, and spring term of in Grade 1 (Time 3). At the fourth measurement point of the study (at the end of Grade 4), 158 children (75 girls, 83 boys) were assessed.

Conclusions

• The results showed that although phonological awareness at the beginning of kindergarten predicted reading fluency and reading comprehension at the end of Grade 4, these effects were mediated by reading skills at the end of kindergarten and Grade 1 (in other words, phonological awareness contributed to reading performance at kindergarten and Grade 1, which then predicted reading performance at Grade 4).
• The best predictor of reading comprehension and reading fluency at the end of Grade 4 was letter knowledge at the beginning of the kindergarten year.
• The findings suggest that besides being a powerful predictor of beginning reading ability, early letter knowledge is also predictive of later development of fluent reading.
• Mothers’ educational level predicted their children’s performance in reading comprehension tasks at the end of Grade 4, even after controlling for children’s reading skills in Grade 1.
• The results confirmed that girls performed better than boys in reading comprehensions tests.

This study compared measures of simple and complex verbal working memory and receptive and expressive vocabulary for bilingual and monolingual school beginners. Monolingual learners outperformed bilingual learners in vocabulary, but there were no significant differences on working memory tests. Thus, working memory tests may offer a fairer measure of language ability for bilingual children.

Author: Kate Cockcroft

Source: Cockcroft, K. (2016) A comparison between verbal working memory and vocabulary in bilingual and monolingual South African school beginners: implications for bilingual language assessment. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 19(1), 74-88. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2014.964172

This study compared bilingual and monolingual school beginners on measures of simple and complex verbal working memory and receptive and expressive vocabulary. Participants comprised 120 school beginners (English first- and second-language speakers) who were being educated in English. Monolingual learners outperformed bilingual learners in vocabulary, but there were no significant differences on working memory tests. Thus, working memory tests may offer a fairer measure of language ability for bilingual children.

• Vocabulary tests are typically used to assess language learning in children, although bilingual children underperform on such tests.
• Bilingual children develop vocabulary slower than monolingual learners; thus, vocabulary tests alone are unlikely to provide an accurate representation of the bilingual child’s language learning.
• Working memory tests may provide a fairer means of evaluating bilingual language learning than tests of vocabulary.
• In South Africa, 79% of the population speak South African languages as their mother tongue rather than English. However, language tests are usually conducted in English.

The study

The purpose of this study was to compare performance on tests of simple and complex verbal working memory and receptive and expressive vocabulary in monolingual learners’ mother tongue and bilingual learners’ second language. The aim was to determine whether verbal working memory tests provide a fairer means of assessing bilingual language-learning than measures of vocabulary.

Participants were 120 first-grade students. Of these, 67 spoke only English at home, while 53 spoke African language at home with English being their second language. Their non-verbal intelligence, vocabulary, and working memory were measured.

Summary

• Worldwide, there has been an increase in the number of immigrant children who do not speak the majority language.
• Psycho-educational assessments of these children may be complicated as they are often conducted in a language that is not the child’s mother tongue.
• It would be useful to be able to include tests that can provide an objective indication of typical language processing in such assessments, even when the child is assessed in their second language.
• Working memory tests may be suitable for this kind of assessment.

Key findings

• Monolingual children performed significantly better than bilingual children on the measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary.
• There were no significant differences between language groups on the simple or complex verbal working memory measures, even when differences in vocabulary were statistically accounted for.
• Working memory tests showed different patterns of relationship with the vocabulary tests for monolingual and bilingual groups.

Implications

• The findings of this study suggest that tests of verbal working memory are able to give an indication of whether the articulatory rehearsal and storage processes of the phonological loop are developing appropriately in the bilingual child, even when the child is tested in a second language.
• Phonological loop processes predict performance on a range of linguistic and academic tasks.

This study explored the extent to which child-centred versus teacher-directed teaching practices would predict the development of children’s reading and maths skills in the first year of elementary school. Evidence was found that a high level of child-centred teaching practices predict improved children’s reading and maths skills’ development during the first school year. Child-centred teaching practices were equally beneficial for academic skills’ development of children with varying initial skill levels.

Authors: Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Noona Kiuru, Eija Pakarinen, Anna-Maija Poikkeus, Helena Rasku-Puttonen, Martti Siekkinen & Jari-Erik Nurmi

Source: Lerkkanen, M.-K., Kiuru, N., Pakarinen, E., Poikkeus, A.-M., Rasku-Puttonen, H., Siekkinen, M., & Nurmi, J.-R. (2016). Child-centred versus teacher-directed teaching practices: Associations with the development of academic skills in the first grade at school. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 36, 145-156.

This study explored the extent to which child-centred versus teacher-directed teaching practices would predict the development of children’s reading and maths skills in the first year of elementary school. Evidence was found that a high level of child-centred teaching practices predict improved children’s reading and maths skills’ development during the first school year. Child-centred teaching practices were equally beneficial for academic skills’ development of children with varying initial skill levels.

• Early childhood education (ECE) classroom practices impact child outcomes such as children’s social and academic skills.
• In child-centred teaching, children are viewed as active constructors of knowledge and the teachers’ role is mainly to facilitate their learning. The teacher-directed approach holds that basic academic skills are acquired through direct instruction and practice. These approaches differ in terms of the degree by which the teacher facilitates learning, that is, by encouraging children’s active exploration and construction of their own knowledge.

The study

The benefits of different teaching practices can vary depending on the skill domain and age of the children. In this study, we were interested in how child-centred versus teacher-directed teaching practices contribute to the development of reading and maths skills during the first school year in a Finnish school context for children aged seven years old.

• Child-centred teaching emphasises the child’s active role as a learner and is sensitive to children’s needs and interests.
• Teacher-directed teaching emphasises the provision of information and the employment of structured group lessons, teaching discrete skills in small steps, and giving praise to children when predetermined goals are reached.

Participants were 1132 Finnish first-grade children from 93 classrooms (and their teachers). A subsample of 29 teachers participated in classroom observations on a voluntary basis. The Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM) was employed to observe the extent to which child-centred and teacher-directed approaches to instruction, management, and social climate were present in the classrooms.

Summary

• Children’s higher initial reading skills were associated with higher levels of child-centred teaching practices in their classroom.
• A high level of child-centred teaching practices contributed positively to children’s reading and maths skills development, while the effect did not depend on children’s initial skills.
• Teacher-directed teaching practices had no effect on maths skills development.
• However, an emphasis on teacher-directed practices was negatively associated with reading skills development among children who had average or high initial reading skills.

Implications

Child-centred teaching practices in first-grade student classrooms resulted in better learning development of both reading and maths skills. Thus, the use of child-centred teaching practices may be recommended especially when children have initially average or high skill levels. A teacher who emphasises child-centred practices in the classroom is a supporter and sensitive facilitator of children’s academic skills development and views children as active contributors to their own learning. Teachers using child-centred teaching practices provide a wide array of literacy experiences and instructional choices (including phonic-based and meaning-based tasks) to facilitate each child’s individual literacy learning based on the child’s previous knowledge and skills. In child-centred classrooms, children have more autonomy over their learning and they can choose activities and texts according to their personal interests, which will keep their motivation for reading practices high while further fostering their reading skills.

In this study, the Liberian and Kenyan experiences of implementing large-scale reading programmes are examined, documenting the critical components and conditions of the programme designs that affected the likelihood of successfully transitioning from pilot to scale. The study also reviews the design, deployment, and effectiveness of each pilot programme and the scale, design, duration, enabling conditions, and initial effectiveness results of the scaled programmes in each country.

Authors: Amber Gove, Medina Korda Poole, & Benjamin Piper

Source: Gove, A., Korda Poole, M., & Piper, B. (2017). Designing for scale: Reflections on rolling out reading improvement in Kenya and Liberia. In A. Gove, A. Mora, & P. McCardle (Eds.), Progress toward a literate world: Early reading interventions in low-income countries, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 155, 77–95.

In this study, the Liberian and Kenyan experiences of implementing large-scale reading programmes are examined, documenting the critical components and conditions of the programme designs that affected the likelihood of successfully transitioning from pilot to scale. The study also reviews the design, deployment, and effectiveness of each pilot programme and the scale, design, duration, enabling conditions, and initial effectiveness results of the scaled programmes in each country.

• UNESCO estimates that 250 million children globally are not learning basic reading and maths skills.
• Both Liberia and Kenya began pilot programmes to evaluate various approaches to improving reading outcomes, specifically the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) Plus programme in Liberia and the Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative in Kenya, with noteworthy results.
• The resulting rigorous evidence encouraged both countries’ governments to scale up the programmes to a larger number of schools.

The study

This study examined the particular characteristics of scaling up reading programmes in Liberia and Kenya and documented essential technical components and conditions of the programme design that increased the likelihood of a successful pilot-to-scale transition.

Research questions:

1. Do pilot interventions in Liberia and Kenya improve learning outcomes?
2. How do the pilot findings inform the scale-up design in Liberia and Kenya?
3. Do the scaled-up interventions improve learning outcomes in Liberia and Kenya?

Liberia’s EGRA Plus programme was designed with two treatment groups and a control group that received the intervention after the endline assessment. Each of the three groups included 60 schools. The ‘light’ treatment included support for classroom-based assessment and the dissemination of student results to parents and community members. In the full-treatment schools, teachers received instructional materials and a manual with 110 scripted reading lesson plans. They were trained by instructional coaches, and were given a small library. Liberia began implementing an approach in 2011 designed to be similar to the EGRA Plus full-treatment intervention in 1,200 schools.

Kenya’s PRIMR initiative was implemented in 1,384 schools. Students received both English and Kiswahili textbooks. Teachers received a corresponding teachers’ guide. Teachers were trained 7 days per year, and they observed and then practiced a model mini-lesson. There were also tutors who focused on improving teaching and providing in-classroom instructional support.

Implications

Both pilot interventions—the EGRA Plus in Liberia and the PRIMR in Kenya—have been found to improve reading. However, the final results from large-scale interventions are not yet available because the Ebola crisis affected the large-scale intervention in Liberia, and in Kenya they are waiting to determine the effects of the intervention.

This study compared three localised applications of a literacy approach for resource-lean environments (in Rwanda, Senegal, and the Philippines) and examined the factors influencing its impact in each context, considering dosage, duration, and environment.

Authors: Rachel Christina & Elena Vinogradova

Source: Christina, R. & Vinogradova, E. (2017). Differentiation of effect across systemic literacy programs in Rwanda, the Philippines, and Senegal. In A. Gove, A. Mora, & P. McCardle (Eds.), Progress toward a literate world: Early reading interventions in low-income countries, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 155, 51–65.

This study compared three localised applications of a literacy approach for resource-lean environments (in Rwanda, Senegal, and the Philippines) and examined the factors influencing its impact in each context, considering dosage, duration, and environment.

• All three literacy programmes (in Rwanda, Senegal, and the Philippines) were funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
• In Rwanda, the Literacy, Language, and Learning Initiative (L3) implemented a comprehensive, bilingual, early-grade literacy programme, including literacy standards development, training for early-grade teachers, development of print and audio teaching and learning materials, support for educational leadership, and community-based activities to support literacy.
• In the Philippines, the Basa Pilipinas programme worked to strengthen the literacy component of the new primary-grades curriculum in trilingual classrooms through standards development, teacher and school leader training, materials development, and awareness campaigns.
• Senegal’s Harnessing Youth Volunteers as Literacy Leaders (HYVALL) programme improved local education outcomes by training youth volunteers to mentor students at risk of failure due to low literacy and to engage families and communities in supporting reading.
• Across the three countries, low parental literacy, teacher absenteeism, lack of teaching and learning materials, and overcrowding in primary schools were constants.

The study

This study examined the literacy progress among students in Grades 1–3 during implementation of each of the projects in the three countries. Students were tested at baseline and at endline for the core reading skills of fluency and comprehension. Contextual and demographic data was also collected.

Implications

• Data can make a difference. Engaging ministry personnel in the collection of and reflection on student and teacher data has helped to motivate support and engagement that have been crucial for moving programmes forward.
• More really is better. Both dosage and duration of exposure to the literacy programmes in these countries were related to increased performance and greater effect sizes.
• Methods matter. The three literacy programmes moved beyond explicit phonics and deliberately incorporated extensive oral language development, writing, and critical thinking.