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Letter Knowledge Predicts Grade 4 Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension

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.

Reading accuracy

  • To develop adequate decoding and word recognition skills, children must progress through different stages.
  • In Frith’s (1985) model, word recognition begins to develop along with the visual processing of printed words, progressing to a phase in which children use letter-sound correspondences for decoding.
  • The process ends in the orthographic stage, in which children apply adaptive and flexible strategies to decide the most efficient way to decode the written text.
  • Phonological awareness has been found to be associated with early word-reading skills.
  • Letter knowledge provides a basis for understanding the alphabetic principle.
  • Visual skills (such as automatic orientation of attention) provide a basis for subsequent decoding.

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.

Social background factors

  • Several family-related factors (such as parents’ education and socioeconomic status) may contribute to children’s reading development.
  • Gender differences in reading performance have also been reported; girls outperform boys in reading measured between the ages of 9 and 14 years.

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.

Findings

  • In the first path model, reading comprehension and text and word chain reading at the end of Grade 4 were predicted by letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension at the beginning of kindergarten.
  • The higher the level of letter knowledge at the beginning of kindergarten year, the higher the level of reading comprehension and text and word chain reading at the end of Grade 4.
  • The higher the level of phonological awareness, the higher the level of word chain reading later.
  • The higher the level of listening comprehension at the beginning of the kindergarten year, the higher the level of reading comprehension at the end of Grade 4.
  • When metacognitive awareness and visual attention at the beginning of kindergarten were added to the model, the results for letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and listening comprehension remained the same.
  • Visual attention at the beginning of kindergarten predicted both reading comprehension and word chain reading.
  • Reading comprehension was predicted by metacognitive awareness.
  • At the third step, mother’s educational level was added to the model. The paths from step 2 remained the same, except the association from visual attention to reading comprehension decreased to a statistically nonsignificant level.
  • Mother’s educational level added to the prediction of reading comprehension skills.
  • Child’s gender was added to the previous model at a fourth step. The paths of the previous step remained the same.
  • The results showed that children’s gender predicted their reading comprehension: girls showed a higher level of reading comprehension skills in Grade 4 than boys.
  • At the fifth step, earlier levels of reading performance at the end of kindergarten and at the end of Grade 1 were added as predictors for reading variables at the end of Grade 4.
  • The results for visual attention, mother’s education, and gender remained the same compared to the model of step 4.
  • Besides having a direct effect on reading comprehension and text reading, letter knowledge had an indirect effect on reading comprehension and text reading via reading skills at the end of Grade 1.
  • After taking into account kindergarten and Grade 1 reading skills, letter knowledge had only an indirect effect on word chain reading.
  • The impact of phonological awareness on reading comprehension, text reading, and word chain reading was mediated by the reading skills measured at the end of the kindergarten year and at the end of Grade 1.
  • Besides having direct effect on reading comprehension, metacognitive awareness had an additional indirect effect on reading comprehension, text reading, and word chain reading via reading skills at the end of Grade 1.
  • After controlling for the earlier levels of reading skills, the path from listening comprehension to reading comprehension disappeared.
  • The results demonstrated that the level of reading skills at the end of Grade 1 predicted all the outcome measures.
  • At the sixth step, rapid serial naming (measured in Grade 4) was added as a predictor in the previous model; however, performance on the rapid serial naming task did not add to the prediction of measures of reading skill at the end of Grade 4.
  • At the final step, the impact of general cognitive ability was also tested, but this did not change any of the previous results.

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.

A Comparison Between Verbal Working Memory and Vocabulary in Bilingual and Monolingual South African School Beginners: Implications for Bilingual Language Assessment

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.

Benefits of using working memory tests

  • Procedures and stimuli are typically designed to be equally unfamiliar to all testees and are based on material that is either not explicitly taught (such as non-words) or very well learned (such as digits and letters).
  • Tests of working memory evaluate the passive, short-term storage of the verbal-based phonological loop and/or the visuospatial sketchpad (known as ‘simple’ verbal/visuospatial working memory), as well as the active central executive (or ‘complex’ verbal or visuospatial working memory).
  • Phonological loop tasks are implicated in vocabulary ability and new word learning.

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.

Findings

  • Significant language group differences emerged on the vocabulary tests and with non-verbal IQ.
  • There were no significant differences between the language groups on any of the four working memory tests.
  • All the working memory tests were moderately-to-strongly correlated with the vocabulary measures in the monolingual group.
  • In the bilingual group, the vocabulary measures were only significantly correlated with the digit span tests. Non-word recall and counting recall appear unrelated to expressive and receptive vocabulary in this group.

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.

Child-centred versus Teacher-directed Teaching Practices: Associations with the Development of Academic Skills in the First Grade at School

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.

Defining child-centred teaching

Partnership: teachers assist and facilitate children’s learning by providing them with guidance, opportunities, and encouragement to direct their own exploration of objects and academic topics.

Supportive: the teacher supports children’s learning efforts and social skills.

Sensitive: teaching practices are sensitive to children’s needs and interests.

Motivational: by taking into account children’s needs and interests and promoting children’s autonomy in the classroom, the teacher motivates children to learn, thereby resulting in improved learning outcomes.

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.

Findings

  • Child-centred teaching practices were associated with better reading and maths skills in Grade 1 (spring).
  • Teacher-directed teaching practices were negatively associated with reading skills in Grade 1 (spring).
  • Child-centred teaching practices seems to promote better skills in reading and maths.

Child-centred teaching practices

  • Child-centred teaching practices predicted better reading and maths skills developmentthrough the first grade.
  • Child-centred teaching practices benefited the reading and maths skills of children with different initial skill levels in reading and maths.
  • The higher the initial skill levels the children had and the smaller the class sizeswere, the more child-centred teaching practices were used.

Teacher-directed teaching practices

  • Teacher-directed teaching practices predicted poorer reading skills development among those children who initially had average or high skill levels.
  • The larger the class size, the more teacher-directed teaching practices the teacher used.
  • There was no effect of teacher-directed teaching practices on maths skills.

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.

Designing for Scale: Reflections on Rolling Out Reading Improvement in Kenya and Liberia

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.

Liberia

  • The country has struggled to provide basic education services to its population.
  • Net primary enrolment is less than 40%, and more than 400,000 children are out of school.

Kenya

  • The country is not as poor as Liberia.
  • The quality of early primary school education remains low.

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.

Findings

Liberia Pilot Results

  • Full treatment increased student achievement for every EGRA subtask, with an overall effect size of 0.79 SD, ranging from 0.39 SD to 1.23 SD.
  • Full treatment increased letter-naming fluency by an additional 1.2 years compared to the effect of being in school for 1 year. This was the smallest effect size.
  • The light treatment group had a statistically significant effect on letter-naming fluency and phonemic awareness but no effects on the other areas of literacy. This suggests that accountability alone cannot rapidly improve results.

Liberia Large-Scale Intervention Results

  • Letter-naming fluency and phonemic awareness were the only skills to show significant improvements relative to the control group, with effect sizes 0.56 and 1.03 SD, respectively.

Kenya Pilot Results

  • Kenya’s PRIMR programme produced effect sizes between 0.3 to 0.8 SD in reading.
  • The mathematics outcomes were somewhat smaller in size but were still statistically significant.
  • The most important factor to learning outcomes was the higher-quality student book.
  • The PRIMR resulted in moderate-to-large effects for all subjects, including English, Kiswahili, mathematics, and mother tongue.

Kenya Large-Scale Intervention Results

  • Tusome (a large-scale PRIMR programme) was implemented in more than 23,500 schools in 2015 and currently serves more than 2.5 million pupils annually.
  • Results are not yet available for this programme; however, large-scale implementation seems promising.

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.

Differentiation of Effect Across Systemic Literacy Programs in Rwanda, the Philippines, and Senegal

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.

Rwanda

  • The adult literacy rate is 68%.
  • The national language of instruction changed from French to English in 2009.

Senegal

  • Overall literacy rates are between 50% and 60%, and below 40% for women.
  • French is the official language of instruction, although less than 1% of the population speaks French as a first language.

The Philippines

  • Literacy rates for those aged 10 years and older are 80%–90%; this is primarily reflective of decoding abilities (but not comprehension).
  • The Philippines is a trilingual country (English, Filipino, and local languages)

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.

Findings

Rwanda

  • The L3 intervention demonstrated an average effect size of 0.20 SD when scaled up at the national level.
  • The effects sizes for girls were nearly double those for boys.

The Philippines

  • The Basa Pilipinas intervention demonstrated an average effect size of 0.51.
  • Girls improved more than boys.

Senegal

  • In the HYVALL intervention group, all zero scores were eliminated at endline. The results demonstrated a dramatic advantage for children over comparison peers.
  • The average effect size of difference in gain scores was 1.29.
  • Girls made greater gains than boys.

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.

GraphoLearn India: The Effectiveness of a Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in Supporting Struggling Readers of English

The aim of this study was to determine whether GraphoLearn, a computer-assisted reading tool, could be used to support the English reading skills of struggling readers in India. GraphoLearn led to significant improvements in children’s letter-sound knowledge. Thus, it offers a potential intervention to support struggling readers of English in India.

Authors: Priyanka Patel, Minna Torppa, Mikko Aro, Ulla Richardson, & Heikki Lyytinen

Source: Patel, P., Torppa, M., Aro, M., Richardson, U., and Lyytinen, H. (2018). GraphoLearn India: The Effectiveness of a Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in Supporting Struggling Readers of English. Front. Psychol. 9:1045. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01045

There are hundreds of millions of illiterate individuals in India. Those living in poverty struggle to learn English as they have no prior exposure to it and no support at home. The aim of this study was to determine whether GraphoLearn, a computer-assisted reading tool, could be used to support the English reading skills of struggling readers in India. Participants were 7-year-old, Grade 3 students (N = 30) who were not native English speakers. Grapholearn led to significant improvements in children’s letter-sound knowledge. Thus, it was determined that GraphoLearn offers a potential intervention to support struggling readers of English in India.

  • The population of India is over 1.3 billion, and the literacy rate is 72% among those aged 15 years or older.
  • Education plays a major role in literacy; however, those living in poverty face many problems in accessing education.
  • With a country-wide push towards English-medium education in India, poor students especially are studying in a language that they may have no prior exposure to and no support at home for.
  • Speaking English can influence the standard of living in India, as those with better English skills attain better job opportunities and consequently better pay.
  • Slum children often have no exposure to English prior to entering school, as parents typically cannot speak English and are also illiterate in their mother tongue.

Schooling in India

  • A large majority (95.9%) of children ages 6–14 years are enrolled in school across India.
  • Across all languages, only 47.8% of children in Grade 5 are able to read a Grade 2 level text.
  • In term of English, only 19.3% of Grade 3 children can read simple words.

What is GraphoLearn?

  • This was previously known as GraphoGame.
  • It is a theoretically-driven, computer-assisted tool for early reading that provides training on the connections between spoken and written language by explicitly instructing on grapheme–phoneme correspondences.

Grapheme–Phoneme correspondences

  • Those learning to read need to understand the grapheme–phoneme correspondences that occur within a particular language.
  • Knowledge of grapheme–phoneme correspondences directly impacts reading fluency.
  • Ease of reading acquisition is greatly determined by the orthographic depth of a language.
  • The grapheme–phoneme correspondences in English are more complex and context-dependent.
  • English (and other opaque orthographies) might be more effectively introduced through larger units, also known as rime units, rather than at the level of single graphemes and phonemes, although this idea is subject to disagreement.
  • There tends to be consensus that early reading instruction through phonics should follow a systematic approach whereby children are taught to connect spoken language segments to their corresponding written forms.

Methods of Teaching English

Rote manner

  • Children in India are taught English in rote manner.
  • Students learn the names of letters, rather than sounds, and are then expected to learn ‘common’ words as a whole.
  • Through such rote learning methods, children are unable to blend or decode unfamiliar words and are therefore only able to ‘read’ words that are familiar to them.

Systematic phonics

  • This refers to explicitly instructing readers on the linkages that exist between letters and their corresponding sounds and how that is then used to read words.
  • This approach is believed to be the most logical way to support early reading development.

The study

This study examined the efficacy of GraphoLearn, a computer-assisted reading tool, in improving basic English reading skills of slum children in India by supporting the development of grapheme–phoneme knowledge, reading, and spelling ability.

Participants were 31 Grade 3 learners, aged 7–8 years. Students were randomly allocated to either the experimental group (which played GraphoLearn; n = 16) or the control group, which played a math game (n = 15). All students came from low-income homes with no exposure to English in the home environment. One student’s data was removed because they did not participate in any of the post-tests.

Findings

  • At post-test, group differences in favour of the GraphoLearn group were significant for all GraphoLearn tasks (letter-sounds, rime units, and word recognition).
  • On the paper-and-pencil tasks, results revealed no significant differences between groups at either pre-test or post-test.
  • For both GraphoLearn and paper-and-pencil tasks, there was a significant main effect of time on all three tasks (letter-sounds, rime units, and word recognition), with both groups showing improvement from pre- to post-test.
  • For the letter-sounds task, there was a significant main effect for group and a significant interaction effect for time*group, with the GraphoLearn group showing significantly higher scores and faster development than the control group.

Implications

  • The GraphoLearn intervention group showed the greatest improvements with the letter-sounds task; therefore, it can effectively support the development of English letter-sound knowledge among Indian children.
  • Letter-sound knowledge has been identified as a critical building block in early reading development and it affects early literacy skills.
  • Technology has the potential to enhance learning.
  • The greatest efficiency may be achieved if technology is used to create a ‘blended learning’ environment in which teachers use information gathered from the technology to guide further instruction.

Great Expectations: A Framework for Assessing and Understanding Key Factors Affecting Student Learning of Foundational Reading Skills

This paper reviews recent data regarding how different types of donor interventions (structural or pedagogical) have contributed to improved reading outcomes. Moreover, effect sizes are compared over a series of intervention studies conducted from 2003 to 2015. We identify the programme design characteristics and types of interventions that increase the likelihood of successful expansion of the interventions commonly referred to as ‘scaling-up’, the ability to sustain interventions, and the value of reading programmes in low- and middle-income countries.

Authors: Audrey-Marie Moore, Amber Gove, & Karen Tietjen

Source: Moore, A.-M., Gove, A., & Tietjen, K. (2017). Great expectations: A framework for assessing and understanding key factors affecting student learning of foundational reading skills. 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, 13–30.

This paper reviews recent data regarding how different types of donor interventions (structural or pedagogical) have contributed to improved reading outcomes. Moreover, effect sizes are compared over a series of intervention studies conducted from 2003 to 2015. We identify the programme design characteristics and types of interventions that increase the likelihood of successful expansion of the interventions commonly referred to as ‘scaling-up’, the ability to sustain interventions, and the value of reading programmes in low- and middle-income countries.

  • The Education for All (EFA) movement is a global commitment to providing high-quality basic education for all children, youth, and adults.
  • Basic education is a human right, is central to countries’ economic, social, and political development, and leads to better family health and nutrition, improved capacity of the poor to participate in the political process, and higher lifetime incomes.
  • Reading skill acquisition is most effectively achieved by instruction in languages that the student speaks and understands, a phonics-based approach, and a materials-rich environment.
  • To achieve basic education outcomes, a move from focusing on access to focusing on quality and learning is required.

Moving from access to learning: the EFA era

  • The number of out-of-school children worldwide has been reduced by half since 1990, although approximately 57 million children and youth remain out of school.
  • The 2011 global youth literacy rate of 90% masks huge regional differences; for example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 30% of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are considered illiterate.
  • Most low-income countries failed to meet their targets. By the end of 2015 (of those countries with data), only 14 of 122 countries had ensured that 8 out of 10 children were enrolled in school, and only 13 out of 90 achieved completion rates near 97% for primary education.
  • Nearly 40% of the world’s children (some 250 million) do not acquire basic skills in reading and maths.
  • Three major challenges have been identified: large gains are required quickly; achieving the required standard and making a system reform will not be easy; we need to be committed (and strategic) about how to do the system reform.

The study

This paper reviews recent data on how different types of donor interventions have contributed to improved reading outcomes. Moreover, it compares effect sizes over a series of intervention studies conducted from 2003 to 2015. We present a framework for understanding how the intensity, frequency, and fidelity of the interventions as well together with the enabling environments of reform affect the magnitude and rates at which reading and learning outcomes can be expected to improve. This article identifies the programme design characteristics and types of interventions that increase the likelihood of successful expansion of the interventions commonly referred to as ‘scaling-up’.

Findings

  • Effect sizes of the interventions vary greatly, from 0.03 to 0.85.
  • The programmes that achieved strong effect sizes focused narrowly on reading in the early grades and provided teachers with substantial support through coaching and supervision.
  • The World Bank projects that tended to focus on direct pedagogical interventions and support rather than classroom- or school-based management tended to achieve higher effect sizes; thus, they exerted greater influence on learning outcomes.

Duration of intervention

  • Duration refers to the length of time that interventions are provided to participants.
  • When support for interventions is provided for a longer time, the chance that those interventions will take hold and demonstrate positive results increases.

Dosage of intervention

  • The ‘dosage’ refers to the frequency and intensity (or strength) of interventions, and is found to make a difference to outcomes.
  • Implementation dosage refers to strength of preparation that stakeholders (such as teachers) receive to deliver an intervention (for example, pedagogical method).
  • Intervention dosage refers to the frequency with which an intervention is provided to a particular stakeholder.
  • One ‘dose’ of an intervention is usually not enough. Professional development interventions should be delivered more intensively, and usually with a longer duration or higher frequency to make a difference.

Enabling environment

  • This refer to a set of interrelated conditions (political, institutional, technical, and cultural) that affect the capacity of actors (teachers, parents, communities, donors, and governments) to engage in development processes in a sustained and effective manner.

Implications

  • Dosage and duration of intervention as well as an enabling environment affect the success of the intervention.
  • Donors and implementers should endeavour to instigate more comparisons between different approaches within their implementation designs and test multiple hypotheses to answer key policy and practice questions.

Impact of Literacy Interventions on Reading Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Meta-Analysis

This study systematically reviewed literacy interventions in low- and middle-income countries, and estimated their effects on children’s reading skills using a meta-analytic approach. The results revealed an overall effect of .30 across various literacy outcomes. The largest effects were identified for emergent literacy skills (.40) and the smallest effects for reading comprehension (.25) and oral language skills (.20).

Authors: Young-Suk G. Kim, Hansol Lee, & Stephanie S. Zuilkowski

Source: Kim, Y.-S. G., Lee, H., & Zuilkowski, S.S. (2020). Impact of Literacy Interventions on Reading Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Meta-Analysis. Child Development, 91(2), 638-660, DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13204

This study systematically reviewed literacy interventions in low- and middle-income countries, and estimated their effects on children’s reading skills using a meta-analytic approach. A total of 67 studies met the inclusion criteria. The results revealed an overall effect of .30 across various literacy outcomes. Largest effects were identified for emergent literacy skills (.40) and the smallest effects for reading comprehension (.25) and oral language skills (.20).

  • Reading is one of the core foundational skills for academic achievement and careers in the modern information-driven society.
  • Beyond individual growth and advancement, reading skills also have economic consequences at the societal level.
  • Unfortunately, many children—particularly those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)—do not develop foundational reading skills even after years of instruction.
  • It is estimated that 9 out of 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have basic reading skills. A similarly dire situation is also found in Central and Southern Asia.

Key areas of reading instruction

  • According to the National Reading Panel, the key areas of reading instruction are phonological awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
  • Recent studies have revealed that oral language skills beyond vocabulary (such as grammatical knowledge and listening comprehension) as well as higher order cognitive skills (such as inference and perspective taking) are necessary for reading comprehension.

The study

The goal of this study was to review the effects of reading interventions on reading and language outcomes in LMICs using a meta-analytic approach.

Research questions:

  1. What is the impact of multicomponent literacy intervention in LMICs on language and reading outcomes?
  2. Do the effects vary as a function of intervention features as well as contextual factors?

Overall, a total of 67 studiesmet all the inclusion criteria, with 129 independent samples representing 661 effect sizes from 32 countries (N = 213,464)

Factors affecting the effect size

  • Language in which reading is taught was an issue, as reading acquisition is easier in a child’s most familiar language.
  • In some interventions, teachers were provided with a one-off teacher training workshop, whereas in others ongoing support was provided, including regular classroom visits, feedback, and booster training sessions.
  • The majority of interventions targeted instruction in the school context only, whereas some incorporated community involvement to encourage literacy-related activities in the children’s homes and communities.
  • Interventions also varied in terms of duration and target subjects.
  • Results may also have been moderated as a function of contextual features such as urbanicity and region.

Findings

  • The effect sizes ranged from -.43 to 2.00.
  • A majority (80%) of the effect sizes were positive.
  • The overall average effect size was .30.
  • The effect sizes were .40 for emergent literacy skills, .32 for word reading, .28 for reading fluency, .25 for reading comprehension, and .20 for oral language.
  • The effects of literacy intervention across the outcomes varied as a function of teacher training support, such that interventions with professional development (PD) with ongoing support had a larger average effect than those with one-off PD or no PD.
  • For emergent literacy skills, there was larger effect from providing PD and ongoing support in interventions that included ICT that did not involve the community, and which were carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
  • For word reading, the average impact of the literacy intervention was greater in the Middle East and North Africa.
  • For reading fluency, the effect size was larger with no community involvement in the Middle East and North Africa.
  • For reading comprehension, effect sizes were larger if personal development was offered.
  • For oral language, using the first language as the medium of literacy interventions was more effective than using a second language. In addition, interventions lasting 1–6 months were more effective than those conducted for <1 month or 6–12 months.

Implications

  • Despite the impact of reading development on individual income, health, and empowerment, as well as the economic development of a country, reading has not been taught explicitly as a skill in many LMICs and the majority of children cannot read a single word even after years of instruction.
  • The average effect size of .30 is quite impressive and promising.
  • With explicit and systematic instruction, lower-level skills (such as emergent literacy skills) are easier to improve (relatively) than higher-order skills such as reading comprehension. Improving reading comprehension requires concerted and sustained efforts to a greater extent compared to constrained skills such as emergent literacy skills.
  • One moderator that had a relatively consistent result was teacher training support. The average effect was larger when teachers were either provided with ongoing PD beyond a one-off workshop or had no training.

Impact of Teachers’ Practices on Students’ Reading Comprehension Growth in Guatemala

This study discusses an educational intervention with a strong emphasis on reading development in a bilingual context in the Western Highlands (WH) of Guatemala. The majority of students speak a Mayan language as their mother tongue, although they are generally taught in Spanish. For this intervention, we report data for the first 3 years of implementation of a bilingual/intercultural education model that includes teacher training at the university level and the development of bilingual materials.

Authors: Fernando Rubio, Leslie Rosales de Véliz, María Cristina Perdomo Mosquera, & Ventura Salanic López

Source: Rubio, F., de V´eliz, L. R., Perdoma Mosquera, M. C., & Salanic L´ opez, V. (2017). Impact of teachers’ practices on students’ reading comprehension growth in Guatemala. 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, 67–76.

This study discusses an educational intervention with a strong emphasis on reading development in a bilingual context in the Western Highlands (WH) of Guatemala. The majority of students speak a Mayan language as their mother tongue, although they are generally taught in Spanish. For this intervention, we report data for the first 3 years of implementation of a bilingual/intercultural education model that includes teacher training at the university level and the development of bilingual materials.

  • The WH of Guatemala is representative of much of rural Guatemala; a multicultural, multilingual country where more than 20 languages—including Spanish—are spoken.
  • The country has one of the highest inequality levels in the Americas.
  • Teachers are poorly trained and few instructional materials exist, leading to more than one third of children in rural areas not completing first grade.

Lifelong Learning (LLL) project

  • The lifelong learning project has supported the development of bilingual instructional materials.
  • The project provides undergraduate university training in-service programmes for teaching reading and writing in bilingual situations. It also provides graduate programmes in bilingual education administration for regional administrators that include coaching teachers.
  • The programme supports reading awareness efforts in local communities.

The study

This study presents the results for the first 3 years of implementation of the LLL project.

Hypothesis:

  • Students of teachers who employed project intervention components showed greater growth in reading than teachers who did not report using such interventions.

The sample consisted of 114 WH elementary schools. Data were collected over a 1-year period from 326 teachers serving approximately 6,000 students. Teachers’ use of interventions was measured through a self-report questionnaire about specific intervention components. Student progress in reading comprehension was measured with the Ministry of Education National Reading Assessments for Elementary Grades at the beginning and end of the school year.

Findings

  • Most teachers (93%) taught in Spanish, although the majority (54.3%) stated that teaching literacy should be carried out in both Spanish and Mayan languages at the same time.
  • Some 65% of teachers reported having a school library.
  • There were 55.2% of teachers who reported receiving in-service teacher training at university level.
  • There were 79% of teachers who reported receiving visits from coaching tutors.
  • There were 69.2% of teachers who reported having support from parents, which promoted the students’ growth in reading.
  • Nearly all (95.2%) teachers reported using reading diagnostic assessments, which had positive effects on student growth.

Implications

  • This intervention programme was implemented on a region-wide basis.
  • Initial results show that growth has been promising, although clearly this work must be ongoing to continue to have an impact.
  • Teachers require training at university level, and training should be accompanied by ongoing support from coaches willing to help them improve their practice.
  • Encouraging the Ministry of Education to develop and provide reading and assessment materials in different languages of instruction is beginning to have positive effects.
  • Parents’ participation in reading is beginning to affect growth.

Improving Early Grade Reading Outcomes: Aprender a Ler in Mozambique

The Government of Mozambique has long struggled to improve the low reading levels of children in early grades. A research-based reading intervention was developed and tested in two provinces. This article examines student reading performance from cohorts of second- and third-grade students before and after a 1-year intervention when compared to a control group. The study identifies factors required for successful scale-up of the intervention.

Authors: Shirley Burchfield, Haiyan Hua, David Noyes, & Willem van de Waal

Source: Burchfield, S., Hua, H., Noyes, D., & Van de Waal, W. (2017). Improving early grade reading outcomes: Aprender a ler in Mozambique. 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, 117–130.

The Government of Mozambique has long struggled to improve the low reading levels of children in early grades. A research-based reading intervention was developed and tested in two provinces. This article examines student reading performance from cohorts of second- and third-grade students before and after a 1-year intervention when compared to a control group. The study identifies factors required for successful scale-up of the intervention.

  • In the 1990s (after the civil war), school attendance in Mozambique was difficult due to high poverty levels, impassable roads, and deteriorating or non-existent schools, despite a commitment to improve education.
  • Enrolment was low (around 40%) and schools lacked books, supplies, and qualified teachers.
  • Between 2003 and 2010, primary school enrolment increased from 3.3 million to 5.3 million.
  • With an insufficient number of trained teachers and too few schools to meet the increased demand, most schools operated with double shifts.
  • One study reported that only 41% of children at Grade 3 could read a single word, and only 6% could read 11 words or more per minute.

Aprender a Ler

  • The objective of this intervention is to improve reading outcomes for children at Grades 2 and 3 in Zambésia and Nampula provinces by enhancing quality, reducing absenteeism and tardiness, and increasing instructional time.
  • In 2015, Grade 1 was included in the programme (except for the first 12 weeks of school) when the emphasis is on teaching vocabulary in Portuguese.
  • The programme provides training, coaching, and technical assistance to strengthen basic education services, and was originally targeted at 120 schools.
  • The medium treatment group received intensive professional development, culminating in an examination and a certificate.
  • The full treatment group received school management training aimed at reducing absenteeism and tardiness in addition to training and support.

The study

Research questions:

  1. To what extent have programme interventions improved reading outcomes for children in Nampula and Zambésia provinces?
  2. What factors might assist or impede scale-up efforts?

Sampling included a priori random assignment of 180 schools to either a treatment or a control group in Zambésia and Nampula. Evaluators selected 10 children from each class (3,475 in total). The same schools were sampled at baseline and for midline 1 and midline 2 evaluation, although different students were assessed across the applications.

Components of the intervention

  • Reading reinforcement programme: provides training, coaching, and teaching materials in Portuguese to teachers in Grades 2 and 3 using a phonics-based scope and sequence.
  • School director training and coaching programme: provides school directors with training in school leadership, effective communication, giving and receiving feedback, using practical school management tools for data-based decision making, and building community participation.
  • Institutional capacity building: project staff work with the Provincial Directorate of Education and Culture and Teacher Training Institutes to prepare them to eventually take over programme initiatives.
  • Measuring impact for evidence-based decision making: the project integrates a rigorous monitoring and evaluation process throughout the programme.

Findings

  • After the first year of project implementation, students in both the medium and full treatment groups performed significantly better on all early grade reading assessment subtasks (oral comprehension, concepts about print, letter recognition, familiar word reading, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension) than students in the control group.
  • Students in full treatment schools scored significantly higher than students in medium treatment schools for most measures.
  • The treatment group showed the greatest improvement in letter recognition, familiar word reading, and reading fluency.

Implications

  • Four factors were most likely to have contributed to the results: availability of materials, student and teacher attendance, training and supervision, and language of instruction.
  • Each teacher in the Aprender a Ler treatment schools received two copies of each of 18 titles of read-aloud books and one copy per child of each of 18 decodable books. In control schools, only 10% of children had any reading books.
  • One impediment to programme scale-up is high student and teacher absenteeism: 52% in full treatment schools and 62% in control schools for students, and 31% in treatment schools and 34% in control schools for teachers.
  • The programme selects the strongest and most committed reading coaches and school directors to join a core group of trainers. The success of the scale-up depends on the strength of each district education office.
  • Inability to understand the language of instruction is an impediment to scaling up the programme. The project has developed teaching and learning materials in three Bantu languages. The purpose is to teach vocabulary and comprehension in Portuguese by using a cross-linguistic transfer model. This new component will likely significantly improve children’s ability to learn to read and enhance their overall academic performance.