Language and Literacy : Some fundamental issues in research on reading and writing

Mainstream research on reading and writing is based on the assumption, common in modern linguistics, that spoken language is primary to written language in most important respects. Unfortunately, the conceptual framework for the study of language and 'literacy' (encompassing both reading and writing skills) is built around this assumption. This is problematic with regard to the philosophy of science, since this framework lacks sufficient empirical support. It is claimed in the present thesis that a view of spoken and written language as distinct - but not isolated - sets of codes with potential for meaning is the best working hypothesis in the search for true empirical findings about the relationship between spoken- and written-language skills. This position calls for critical reflection on the conceptual framework used in research on reading and writing. Article I examines the notion of 'phonology' in dyslexia research, particularly within the paradigm of cognitive psychology. Focusing on the problem of vague and non-falsifiable hypotheses involving phonology, it calls for a more 'vulnerable' theory. Article II discusses the status of the concept of 'phoneme' in psycholinguistics with regard to the purposes of understanding, explanation and description in science. It is argued that the phoneme relates primarily to the domain of description and that its adequacy for explanation of written-language skills is marginal. Article III discusses the role of the concept of 'frequency' versus phonological descriptions in the study of written-language acquisition, and a model for maintaining dynamic perspectives on acquisition is suggested. Article IV investigates a widespread definition of 'reading' in cognitive psychology, suggesting an alternative definition. Article V examines the notion of 'lexicon' in research on written-language skills. An alternative conception of 'lexicon' is proposed within the context of connectionism and functional linguistics. Article VI focuses on sensitivity to prosody and the doubling of consonants in writing. A nuanced model of 'skill' is applied to enable sensivity to quantity to be captured according to commonly accepted standards of empirical science. Article VII suggests an alternative model of writing with a special focus on how to conceive of the relationship between end-product and on-line measures

Can We Read Letters? Reflections on Fundamental Issues in Reading and Dyslexia Research

The authors use these fundamental analyses and definitions to shed new light on the ‘balanced approach to reading instruction’, ‘reading fluency’ and other key concepts. The book also deals with problems in the definition of ‘dyslexia’ and proposes a method to arrive at clear and fruitful definitions. It concludes with a chapter trying to answer the question of in what sense, or to what extent, it can be claimed that reading and dyslexia research has made progress. Readership: Educational Researchers and their student

Assessing Writing Motivation: a Systematic Review of K-5 Students' Self-Reports

For attaining success in writing, motivation is essential. Crucially, instruction is dependent on knowing the student’s capabilities and inner drives. To date, research on writing has yet to establish a consistent framework for assessing writing motivation, and often fails to acknowledge students’ self-reports, rather favoring evaluations of students’ writing motivation made by others, such as teachers and researchers. This limbo state originates partly from a general skepticism towards the trustworthiness of elementary students’ self-reports. Nonetheless, the validity of such self-reports has been acknowledged in adjacent fields, such as reading. Aiming to establish a knowledge base from studies addressing students’ voices, the present study adopts the method of a systematic review and investigates how writing motivation has been assessed in empirical studies (1996–2020) through K-5 students’ self-reports. Of the 7047 studies identified through database search, 56 met the inclusion criteria and are examined in this review. Results indicate that (a) storytelling is the genre most used to operationalize writing in the investigations, (b) surveys and interview questions measuring students’ attitude towards writing are the most common type of self-report used, and (c) students’ voices are weighted differently across the studies. Findings suggest that future research should (1) work to counteract existing biases in writing tasks, (2) provide a rationale for their choice/design of measure of motivation, and (3) report clearly whose voices are being heard (e.g., students’, teachers’, or researchers’) and the appropriateness of this choice regarding study purpose, design, and findings.publishedVersio

Developmental Dynamics of Early Reading Skill, Literacy Interest and Reader Self-Concept Within the First Year of Formal Schooling

Previous studies have documented robust relationships between emergent literacy and later reading performance. A growing body of research has also reported associations between motivational factors and reading in early phases of reading development. However, there is less research about cross-lagged relationships between motivational factors and reading skills in beginning readers. To examine relationships between early reading skills, literacy interest and reader self-concept, we tested 1141 children twice during their first year of formal reading instruction in school. Cross-lagged analysis showed strong stability in reading skills and medium stability in literacy interest and reader self-concept over the first school year. We also found bidirectional relationships between reading skills and self-concept and between the motivational components of literacy interest and reader self-concept. In the final part of the article, we address the potential theoretical progress attainable through the use of cross-lagged designs in this field.publishedVersio

Shared responsibility between teachers predicts student achievement: A mixed methods study in Norwegian co-taught literacy classes

Having two teachers work collaboratively in the same class has been suggested as a possible solution to several instructional challenges, including the inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream classrooms and as part of school-wide prevention models to increase student achievement. In this, shared responsibility between teachers is regarded as a prerequisite to successful co-teaching. However, few studies have investigated whether shared responsibility between teachers actually leads to improved student achievement. This mixed methods study investigates shared responsibility in a sample of 148 classrooms where two general educators worked collaboratively in literacy instruction through first and second grade. First, we analyzed whether the degree of shared responsibility between the two teachers for planning, enacting and evaluating literacy instruction predicted student reading when controlling for pre-reading skills at baseline. Second, we carried out in-depth individual interviews with six collaborative teacher dyads purposefully selected from high- and lowperforming classrooms to investigate what characterized their sharing of responsibility. The results show that shared responsibility significantly predicts students’ reading achievement. Further, the interviews reveal a surface level collaboration between coteachers in low-performing classes, yet a more profound level of collaboration with influence on key teaching decisions in high-performing classes.publishedVersio

Skriv til meg–utforsking av lærerstudenters mestringsforventning til egen skriveundervisning i begynneropplæringen

Forskning fremhever læreres positive selvoppfatning som en forutsetning for å kunne gi god lese- og skriveopplæring (Hodges et al., 2021); de må oppleve seg kompetente, ha handlingsrom og oppleve en tilknytning til arbeidet (Deci & Ryan, 2012). Selv om forskningslitteraturen innen motivasjon for skriving er omfattende og voksende (Camacho et al., 2021; Graham et al., 2018; Walgermo & Uppstad, under utgivelse), pekes det i litteraturen på at lærerutdannere ikke legger nok til rette for å styrke læreres positive selvoppfatninger knyttet til skriveopplæring (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Hodges et al., 2021). I denne artikkelen følger vi et autentisk undervisningsopplegg i lærerutdanningen og utforsker i hvilken grad det å gi lærerstudenter en innføring i å skrive tekster for barn i begynneropplæringen – ut over ordinær undervisning i lærerutdanningen – kan styrke studentenes forventning til egen engasjerende begynneropplæring. I et forfatterledet undervisningsopplegg fikk førsteårsstudenter i lærerutdanning en kort innføring i å skrive tekster for barn, før de selv skrev slike tekster og fikk tilbakemelding på disse. Studentenes mestringsforventning ble innhentet før og etter opplegget gjennom digitalt distribuerte spørreskjema. Som forventet opplevde studentene en signifikant økning i mestringsforventning for å skrive tekster for barn. Av større interesse er sammenhenger som kan peke mot et potensial for å styrke læreres beredskap for engasjerende begynneropplæring i klasserommet gjennom å lære å skrive tekster for barn. Diskusjonen drøfter denne muligheten i lys av teori om utvikling av mestringsforventning.Write to me – exploration of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy for instructing beginning writers Research has identified teachers’ positive self-beliefs as a prerequisite for their provision of high-quality reading and writing instruction (Hodges et al., 2021): teachers must feel competent, have room for manoeuvre and feel engaged in their work (Deci & Ryan, 2012). There is an extensive and growing research literature on motivation for writing (Camacho et al., 2021; Graham et al., 2018), which has highlighted that teacher trainers do not give their students enough help and support to strengthen their positive self-beliefs when it comes to writing instruction (Cutler & Graham, 2008; Hodges et al., 2021). In this article, we follow an authentic teaching design in teacher training where the standard instruction included in the teacher-training programme was supplemented with an introduction to the writing of texts for children who are beginning readers. We explore whether this can help strengthen pre-service teachers’ belief that they will be able to provide engaging instruction to beginners. The teaching design in question involved a module led by a professional writer and targeting first-year students on the teaching programme, who first received a brief introduction on how to write texts for children and then wrote such texts themselves and received feedback on them. The pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy was measured before and after the module using digitally administered questionnaires. As expected, there was a statistically significant increase in their self-efficacy regarding the writing of texts for children. However, a more interesting finding is that certain circumstances suggest that learning how to write for children may help prepare pre-service teachers to provide engaging classroom instruction to beginners. In the Discussion, this possibility is considered against the background of theories on the development of self-efficacy.publishedVersio

Kartleggingsprøver i lesing: Tid for nytenking?

Som en del av det nasjonale kvalitetsvurderingssystemet for grunnopplæringen (NKVS) i norsk utdanning har vi i dag forskjellige leseprøver med ulike formål og utforminger for bruk i det 13-årige skoleløpet. I denne artikkelen tegner vi opp en historisk bakgrunn for innføringen av kartleggingsprøvene i lesing i begynneropplæringen, og peker på flere forhold som krever at man tenker nytt om dette prøvekonseptet. I artikkelen viser vi ved hjelp av data fra en longitudinell studie hvordan en kort oppgave gjennomført i slutten av 1. klasse forutsier vansker med leseforståelse i 3. klasse. Med utgangspunkt i disse resultatene drøfter vi kimen til et mulig nytt prøvekonsept med potensial for a) bedre samsvar mellom teori om lesing og måling av lesing, b) longitudinell prediksjon, og c) en prøve med forbedret pedagogisk potensial som kan gjennomføres på kortere tid. Sentralt i dette forslaget står tanken om en kort inngangsprøve som oppfyller hovedformålet om å identifisere de elevene som står i fare for å utvikle vansker med lesing. Denne følges av en utforskende del som gjennomføres en-til-en og gir læreren informasjon om hvordan vanskene arter seg.At present, the national Norwegian quality-assessment system for basic education (NKVS) includes a range of reading tests with different purposes and designs, to be administered at various points during a 13-year period of schooling. In this article, we trace the historical background to the introduction of screening tests of reading in early education and identify a number of circumstances that call for a rethink of the overall test concept. Using data from a longitudinal study, we show that scores on a brief task administered towards the end of grade 1 predict reading-comprehension difficulties in grade 3. Taking that finding as our starting point, we discuss an idea for a possible new test concept that might have the potential to (a) improve the match between reading theory and reading-skill measurements, (b) enable longitudinal prediction, and (c) take less time to administer and be more useful in an educational context. The central elements of this new test concept are a short initial test meeting the primary objective of identifying students at risk of developing reading difficulties, and a follow-up explorative part to be carried out one-on-one, which will provide the teacher with information about the nature of each student’s difficulties.publishedVersio

Can children's instructional gameplay activity be used as a predictive indicator of reading skills?

For children who may face reading difficulties, early intervention is a societal priority. However, early intervention requires early detection. While much research has approached the issue of identification through measuring component skills at single timepoints, an alternative is the utilisation of dynamic assessment. To this point, few initiatives have explored the potential for identification through progress data from play in digital literacy games. This study explored how well growth curves from progress data in a digital intervention can predict reading performance after gameplay compared to measuring component skills at a single timepoint (school entry). 137 six-year-old students played the digital Graphogame for 25 weeks. Latent growth curve analyses showed that variation in trajectories explained variation in literacy performance to a greater extent than risk status at school entry. Findings point to a potential for non-intrusive reading assessment in the application of a serious digital game in first grade.publishedVersio