Loading...
Examining the effects of Structured Word Inquiry on the reading and spelling skills of persistently poor Grade 3 readers
Georgiou, George K. Savage, Robert Dunn, Kristy Bowers, Peter Parrila, Rauno
Georgiou, George K.
Savage, Robert
Dunn, Kristy
Bowers, Peter
Parrila, Rauno
Abstract
Background
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Structured Word Inquiry (SWI; an orthography intervention with a focus on morphology and how morphology interrelates with phonology and etymology) and Simplicity intervention (a novel phonics intervention) on the reading and spelling skills of persistently poor Grade 3 readers.
Methods
Forty-eight English-speaking Canadian children (19 females, Mage = 8.73 years) with persistent reading difficulties were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: SWI, Simplicity and Control. Interventions were delivered by trained graduate students over 10 weeks, 3 times a week, for 30 minutes. Children were tested three times (pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test) on measures of phonological awareness, morphological awareness, reading (Word Reading, Morphological Relatedness and Word Attack) and spelling.
Results
Results of hierarchical linear modelling showed a significant main effect of condition for Morphological Relatedness at post-test favouring SWI and Simplicity over Control and a significant interaction between a latent variable of all secondary decoding measures and morphological awareness. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) showed medium to large effects for both interventions on primary outcomes of Word Reading and Morphological Relatedness.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that SWI and Simplicity can help persistently poor readers improve in some reading skills, but neither programme is a panacea as a number of children continued to struggle after the intervention.
Keywords
intervention, morphological awareness, phonics, poor readers, Structured Word Inquiry
Date
2021
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Research in Reading
Book
Volume
44
Issue
1
Page Range
131-153
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as green open access
License
File Access
Open
Controlled
Controlled