The best way to improve reading skills

The aim of the project is to increase our knowledge about how to apply the best possible reading instruction for elementary pupils, focusing on teaching methods linked to the stage of reading development and the teaching situation.

Reading is a necessary skill in modern society. Increasing emphasis is being placed on reading ability in the Swedish school system. To this end, the National Agency for Education introduced tougher reading standards for elementary schools in 2017, and launched a teacher competence program (Läslyftet), which ran from 2015 to 2020. However, seven percent of elementary pupils did not achieve the required reading standard in Swedish during school year 2018/19.

Swedish schools perform regular screening of reading ability in order to give extra support to pupils who do not reach the required standards. But it is not clear how these support initiatives should be organized to achieve the best results.

To establish how effective reading support should be designed, the researchers aim to examine two teaching methods and their impact on the decoding ability of a group of weak readers in grades 2 and 4. The first method focuses on alphabetic decoding, which is the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships to read written words (bat, bigger). The second method focuses on morphological knowledge, which is needed to recognize complex words whose spelling may not guide pronunciation (laugh).

Training in alphabetic decoding (the phonics method) is an effective teaching method for supporting the beginner’s understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds and how letters are blended to form words. But for complex words, whose spelling is often a poor guide to pronunciation, its efficacy is uncertain. Instead, a method centered on morphological knowledge, i.e. knowledge that words can be made up of smaller parts that relate to different meanings (sea-weed), are highlighted as vital for the ability to recognize complex words.

Pupils at an early stage of learning to read (grade 2) can make good progress using alphabetical decoding, whereas more advanced readers (grade 4) meet more complex words, requiring morphological knowledge. Despite an established connection between early acquisition of morphological knowledge and later reading ability, the degree to which structured morphological teaching is included in the teaching of reading varies. New research shows, however, that the teaching of morphology in early grades impacts positively on pupils’ reading development, mainly because it makes them aware of how words are constructed. 

The project is a collaboration with teachers, who will be responsible for teaching and testing. Over a two-year period 192 pupils with weak decoding abilities in grades 2 and 4 will receive intensive training by their teachers in four groups; one-to-one teaching or group teaching in alphabetic decoding, one-to-one teaching or group teaching in morphological knowledge. Evaluation to determine which method is most effective will entail testing each participant on four occasions on decoding of words and text and on morphological knowledge.