Background Reading for pleasure has been declining worldwide, with significant drops in reading motivation and frequency among adolescents. In Chile, national assessments indicate that students' reading motivation and frequency decrease as they progress through school. This study examines the effects of a school-based reading intervention aimed at increasing intrinsic reading motivation and reading amount among Chilean eighth-grade students.Methods A quasiexperimental design was implemented with 574 eighth-grade students (45% female), aged 13-14 years, from schools with a predominantly medium-low socioeconomic status. The intervention included three groups: full intervention, books only and control. The full intervention included initial teacher training in motivationally oriented practices: self-selected independent reading of popular books, peer recommendations and discussions, absence of summative grading for reading activities, teacher-kept reading records and monthly teacher support meetings. The books-only condition provided book access without additional motivational components. Intrinsic reading motivation and reading amount were the outcomes. Print exposure, language arts grades and home literacy environment were included as covariates.Results The full intervention produced significant gains in intrinsic reading motivation relative to control; gains in reading amount relative to control were positive but did not reach significance. The books-only condition did not differ from control on either outcome. The full intervention produced significantly greater gains in reading amount than books only; the difference in motivation between intervention groups was not significant.Conclusions Combining book access with motivationally oriented classroom practices can effectively increase students' intrinsic reading motivation and reading amount. Book access alone was insufficient to produce significant gains, highlighting the importance of comprehensive, motivation-focused strategies to promote leisure reading among adolescents.
ABSTRACT Background In the United Kingdom, continued declines in children's reading enjoyment and engagement have led to an urgent need for research‐informed, school‐based pedagogy to promote reading. This article shares findings from the implementation and process evaluation (IPE) of a 10‐week whole‐class programme designed to support children's reading motivation and engagement at the start of primary school (reception year, aged 4–5) in England. Methods Love to Read Reception was underpinned by six research‐informed principles to support reading motivation and engagement—access, choice, time, connection, social and success—and developed through IPE guidance and training provided by the Education Endowment Foundation. The whole class programme was delivered in six reception classes in socioeconomically diverse areas across Liverpool. Implementation fidelity and process data were collected using weekly teacher diaries, preprogramme and postprogramme surveys and postprogramme interviews. Results All teachers delivered the programme as intended, reported the programme as both acceptable and feasible, and indicated a willingness to continue using it beyond the evaluation. Further, all commented positively on its alignment with early years teaching approaches. There were some differences between schools, for example, in access to books and levels of parent engagement. All teachers provided examples of positive changes to children's reading attitudes, behaviours and reading engagement skills, albeit with variation among students. Conclusions The IPE provided insights into how the Love to Read Reception programme was implemented and experienced across diverse school contexts and with different student communities. The evaluation revealed underlying drivers of change (e.g., children developing skills in book choice, integrating more book activities into play) that would not have been identified through outcome data alone. The article adds to a growing area of research that integrates process and impact evaluation, offering a more complete picture of how early literacy interventions work, for whom and in what circumstances.
Background Rhythmic reading training (RRT) is a rhythm-based intervention designed for individuals with dyslexia. Studies on RRT demonstrated its positive effect on reading abilities on Italian children and adolescents with dyslexia. To evaluate the cross-linguistic effectiveness of the rhythm-based intervention and to introduce a novel approach to a different population, a Turkish adaptation of RRT, called Ritmik Okuma E & gbreve;itimi (ROE), was designed. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of ROE.Methods Thirty-three Turkish children (15 girls, 18 boys), aged between 8 and 11 years (M = 9.18), diagnosed with dyslexia, were included in this study. The training group involved 16 Turkish students with dyslexia (seven girls, nine boys), who participated in 10 individual 40-min sessions over a 5-week period, during which the rhythm-based intervention was implemented. Reading improvements after the intervention were compared with ones of a matched control group of 17 Turkish students with dyslexia (eight girls, nine boys) who received a math intervention.Results Participants in the ROE training group improved their text reading speed and ability to read both words and nonwords. In addition, there was a significant improvement in word and nonword accuracy in the intervention group. No significant differences emerged between groups for text reading accuracy and rapid naming skills.Conclusions These findings offer preliminary support that rhythm-based interventions are an effective method for enhancing reading skills across different languages.
Background In Ghana, students struggle to acquire foundational literacy skills, prompting the government and international donors to identify more effective pedagogical approaches. This study examines the potential of readiness-based differentiated instruction (DI) in Ghana's multilingual, mixed-ability primary schools.Methods Data include longitudinal reading assessments and surveys from a nationally representative sample of 3559 students and 408 teachers in Grades 2-3 across 198 public primary schools.Results Most teachers in our study do not consistently use readiness-based DI methods despite curricular mandates. However, in classrooms where teachers regularly assess student readiness, group students and adapt instruction accordingly, students perform better in various reading outcomes compared with classrooms without such differentiation. These gains range from basic decoding skills, such as letter-sound knowledge and non-word reading, to more advanced skills, such as reading fluency in both English and the local language.Conclusions Overall, these benefits of readiness-based DI are comparable with the effects of several months to a full year of schooling in low- and middle-income countries, highlighting the substantive role the approach could play in enhancing literacy outcomes in Ghana and similar contexts.
Background We examined the associations between first (L1) and second language (L2) morphological awareness and reading comprehension skills in adolescent and young adult Chinese and English speakers. We hypothesised that crosslinguistically, morphological awareness was mutually related to reading comprehension Methods A total of 117 Chinese-English bilinguals (mean age = 18.33 years, SD = 2.19) completed measures of Chinese character reading, vocabulary, reading comprehension and English decoding, vocabulary and reading comprehension, plus nonverbal reasoning and a demographic and language use questionnaire. Results A baseline model that included age, length of immigration, nonverbal reasoning and within-language word-level reading, vocabulary and morphological awareness was compared against alternative structural equation models that included additional one-way cross-language paths (i.e., L1 -> L2 or L2 -> L1) and two-way paths (i.e., L1 -> L2 and L2 -> L1) from morphological awareness to reading comprehension. Model comparisons suggested that the reciprocal cross-language model fit the data best. In the preferred model, Chinese morphological awareness was related to English reading comprehension (b = 0.15, p = 0.04) and English morphological awareness was related to Chinese reading comprehension (b = 0.14, p < 0.001). Additionally, Chinese vocabulary (b = 0.52, p < 0.001) and Chinese morphological awareness (b = 0.49, p < 0.001) were significant predictors of Chinese reading comprehension (R-2 = 0.84). Furthermore, English decoding (b = 0.11, p = 0.001), English vocabulary (b = 0.56, p = <0.001), English morphological awareness (b = 0.30, p = <0.001) and nonverbal reasoning (b = 0.14, p = <0.001) were significant predictors of English reading comprehension (R-2 = 0.74). Conclusions We discuss the dynamic nature of crosslinguistic relationships and the implications for development and instruction for multilingual learners.
