Effectiveness of Spanish Intervention for First-Grade English Language Learners at Risk for Reading Difficulties

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities 2006-01, Vol.39 (1), p.56-73
• Main Authors: Vaughn, Sharon, Linan-Thompson, Sylvia, Mathes, Patricia G., Cirino, Paul T., Carlson, Coleen D., Pollard-Durodola, Sharolyn D., Cardenas-Hagan, Elsa, Francis, David J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: At risk; Bilingual education; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Classrooms; Comparative Analysis; Competence; Dyslexia - prevention & control; Early Reading; Elementary education; Elementary school students; English (Second Language); English as a second language; English as a second language learning; English language; English language learners; Female; Fluency; Grade 1; Hispanic American people; Humans; Instructional Effectiveness; Intervention; Interventions; Language; Language instruction; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Language use; Learning disabilities; Literacy; Male; Measures (Individuals); Medical sciences; Medical screening; Medium of instruction; Multilingualism; Oral Language; Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence; Phonemic Awareness; Phonetics; Phonological awareness; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading; Reading comprehension; Reading Difficulties; Reading disabilities; Reading Fluency; Reading instruction; Reading Programs; Reading Skills; Second Language Learning; Skills; Sound identification; Spanish language; Spanish Speaking; Special education; Special education. Orthophony; Spoken language; Students; Teachers; Teaching - methods; Treatments; Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/00222194060390010601

The effectiveness of an explicit, systematic reading intervention for first-grade students whose home language was Spanish and who were at risk for reading difficulties was examined. Participants were 69 students in 20 classrooms in 7 schools from 3 districts who initially did not pass the screening in Spanish and were randomly assigned within schools to a treatment or comparison group; after 7 months, 64 students remained in the study. The intervention matched the language of instruction of their core reading program (Spanish). Treatment groups of 3 to 5 students met daily for 50 min and were provided systematic and explicit instruction in oral language and reading by trained bilingual intervention teachers. Comparison students received the school's standard intervention for struggling readers. Observations during core reading instruction provided information about the reading instruction and language use of the teachers. There were no differences between the treatment and comparison groups in either Spanish or English on any measures at pretest, but there were significant posttest differences in favor of the treatment group for the following outcomes in Spanish: Letter-Sound Identification (d = 0.72), Phonological Awareness composite (d = 0.73), Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery—Revised Oral Language composite (d = 0.35), Word Attack (d = 0.85), Passage Comprehension (d = 0.55), and two measures of reading fluency (d = 0.58—0.75).