Abstract
Phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge underpin children’s early literacy acquisition. Promoting these foundational skills in kindergarten should therefore lead to a better response to formal literacy instruction once started. The present study evaluated a 12-week early literacy intervention for linguistically diverse children who are learning to read in German. The study was set in Luxembourg where kindergarten education is in Luxembourgish and children learn to read in German in Grade 1 of primary school. One hundred and eighty-nine children (mean age = 5;8 years) were assigned to an early literacy intervention in Luxembourgish or to a business as usual control group. Trained teachers delivered the intervention to entire classes, four times a week, during the last year of kindergarten. The early literacy program included direct instruction in phonological awareness and letter-knowledge, while promoting print and book awareness and literacy engagement. Children were assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention and at a 9 months delayed follow-up using measures in Luxembourgish and in German. At the end of the intervention, children in the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on phonological awareness and letter-knowledge measures in Luxembourgish and the gains in phonological awareness were maintained at 9 months follow-up. The effects generalized to measures of phonological awareness, word-level reading comprehension and spelling in German (effect sizes d > 0.25), but not to German single word/pseudoword reading, at delayed follow-up. Intervention programs designed to support foundational literacy skills can be successfully implemented by regular teachers in a play-based kindergarten context. The findings suggest that early literacy intervention before school entry can produce educationally meaningful effects in linguistically diverse learners.
Highlights
Being able to read and write are among the most important academic skills and key to educational success
The efficacy and effectiveness of systematic and explicit phonological awareness training combined with letter-knowledge instruction has been supported by rigorous evidence, which has led to the implementation of these evidence-based practices in kindergarten curriculums in many countries (Bus and van IJzendoorn, 1999; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; Ehri et al, 2001; Rose, 2006; Kelly et al, 2019)
We developed a new program in Luxembourgish that draws on previous studies suggesting a causal link between phonological awareness and letter-knowledge as a foundation for early literacy skills (MelbyLervåg et al, 2012)
Summary
Being able to read and write are among the most important academic skills and key to educational success. Children with limited proficiency in the language of literacy instruction often experience particular challenges in the acquisition of literacy skills, which has been globally acknowledged. Effects of an Early Literacy Intervention as a pressing concern (Snow et al, 1998; August and Shanahan, 2006; Weber et al, 2007). Studies assessing the effects of early literacy interventions in children who acquire literacy in languages other than English and in children who learn to read in a second language are scarce (August and Shanahan, 2006; Weber et al, 2007; Murphy and Unthiah, 2015; Oxley and De Cat, 2019)
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