Research has indicated that reading aloud to young students can enhance their foundational reading skills and their reading motivation, but such research has been lacking in African contexts. In this study, we assessed the efficacy of story read-aloud lessons in improving students’ foundational reading skills in Nigeria. The experiment took place in a cluster randomized trial of 199 schools in Northern Nigeria. In treatment schools, second-grade teachers conducted weekly read-aloud lessons as an addition to the core learning curriculum. In control schools, second-grade teachers implemented only the core curriculum, without weekly read-aloud lessons. We found that story read-alouds led to positive effects on listening comprehension, letter sound recognition, nonword decoding, and reading fluency, with effect sizes between 0.17 and 0.33 standard deviations. These outcomes suggest that enhanced student motivation from read-alouds may enhance text-based skills. To identify the effects of increased teacher experience on read-aloud effectiveness, we employed a two-period difference-in-differences approach. We found that increased teacher experience explained between 26% and 51% of the overall read-aloud effect, depending on the literacy subskill. We also found that the read-aloud effects coupled with increased teacher experience had an equalizing effect on the reading outcomes of students from divergent home literacy environments.

中文翻译：

---

故事朗读课对低年级读写能力发展的影响：来自尼日利亚的实验证据

研究表明，向年轻学生大声朗读可以提高他们的基本阅读技能和阅读动机，但在非洲背景下一直缺乏此类研究。在这项研究中，我们评估了故事朗读课程在提高尼日利亚学生的基础阅读技能方面的功效。该实验是在尼日利亚北部 199 所学校的集群随机试验中进行的。在治疗学校，作为核心学习课程的补充，二年级教师每周进行一次朗读课程。在控制学校，二年级教师只实施核心课程，没有每周的朗读课程。我们发现，故事朗读对听力理解、字母发音识别、非单词解码和阅读流畅度有积极影响，效果大小在 0.17 和 0 之间。33 个标准差。这些结果表明，通过朗读增强学生的积极性可能会提高基于文本的技能。为了确定增加的教师经验对朗读效果的影响，我们采用了两期差异法。我们发现教师经验的增加可以解释 26% 到 51% 的整体朗读效果，具体取决于读写子技能。我们还发现，朗读效果加上教师经验的增加对来自不同家庭识字环境的学生的阅读结果产生了均衡的影响。我们采用了两期差值法。我们发现教师经验的增加可以解释 26% 到 51% 的整体朗读效果，具体取决于读写子技能。我们还发现，朗读效果加上教师经验的增加对来自不同家庭识字环境的学生的阅读结果产生了均衡的影响。我们采用了两期差值法。我们发现教师经验的增加可以解释 26% 到 51% 的整体朗读效果，具体取决于读写子技能。我们还发现，朗读效果加上教师经验的增加对来自不同家庭识字环境的学生的阅读结果产生了均衡的影响。