Dr. Grace Elliott, a recently graduated EdD student at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education, has published her research findings in an article entitled ‘Boosting reading comprehension at secondary level’ in the Times Educational Supplement (TES).
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In her article, Dr. Elliott reports on the findings from a randomised controlled trial, which examined the efficacy of text based (TB) and oral language (OL) training on the reading comprehension of 150 students between the ages of 11 and 13 with poor reading comprehension, when compared to a waiting list control group (WLC). Oral language training included vocabulary, reciprocal teaching with spoken language, spoken narrative and figurative language. Text-based training included metacognitive strategies, written narrative and inference skills.
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The study found statistically significant gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary in both the text-based and oral language intervention when compared to the waiting list control group.
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This research was able to show that evidence-based interventions can be feasibly implemented within a school environment to ameliorate students’ reading comprehension difficulties, and interventions directly targeting both students’ oral language comprehension and text-based skills produce significant gains in the reading comprehension of secondary-age students relative to a waiting list control group.
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Dr. Elliott was supervised by Dr. Holly Joseph and Dr. Daisy Powell. She was awarded a Doctor of Education (EdD) from the University of Reading in May 2020.
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To access the article, click here. (Subscription is required.)
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