Abstract

Background: Children in India are among the lowest performing students on international reading comprehension and writing assessments. Oral language instruction may improve these literacy outcomes. Aim: This pilot study investigated whether a multi-tiered system of language support (MTSLS) improved oral narrative language comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing in second and third grade students in India. Methods & Procedures: There were 121 second and third grade participants in this quasi-experimental study. Twelve classrooms were randomly assigned to a treatment, an alternate-treatment, or a no-treatment control condition. The treatment group participated in 8 weeks of multi-tiered Story Champs oral language intervention, the alternate-treatment group participated in 8 weeks of shared storybook intervention, and the no-treatment group served as a control. Teachers in India received training and feedback from researchers in the U.S. using videoconferencing. Videoconferencing was also used to deliver the small group, tier-2 Story Champs intervention. Results: Results indicated that students who received Story Champs instruction had significantly higher scores across all outcomes compared to the students in the alternate-treatment and in the no-treatment control groups. Conclusions: This pilot study indicates that oral narrative MTSLS instruction may help students in India improve their oral language, reading comprehension, and writing performance.

摘要

背景：印度的儿童是国际阅读理解和写作评估中表现最差的学生之一。口语教学可以提高这些读写能力。目的：这项试点研究调查了多层次的语言支持系统 (MTSLS) 是否能提高印度二、三年级学生的口头叙事语言理解、阅读理解和写作能力。方法和程序：这项准实验研究有 121 名二年级和三年级的参与者。十二个教室被随机分配到治疗、替代治疗或不治疗控制条件。治疗组参加了为期 8 周的多层故事冠军赛口语干预，交替治疗组参加8周的共享故事书干预，不治疗组作为对照组。印度的教师通过视频会议接受了美国研究人员的培训和反馈。视频会议也被用于提供小组、二级故事冠军干预。结果：结果表明，与交替治疗组和未治疗对照组的学生相比，接受Story Champs指导的学生在所有结果中的得分明显更高。结论：这项试点研究表明，口头叙事 MTSLS 教学可以帮助印度学生提高口语、阅读理解和写作能力。