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Explicit and systematic narrative language instruction to improve language comprehension: a three-arm randomized controlled trial

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Reading and Writing
Authors:
Douglas B. Petersen at University of Wyoming
Douglas B. Petersen
Maureen Staskowski at Literacy Transformations LLC
Maureen Staskowski
  • Literacy Transformations LLC
Matthew E Foster at University of South Florida
Matthew E Foster
Karee Douglas
Karee Douglas
Karee Douglas
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
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Abstract

The purpose of this three-arm randomized controlled trial was to explore the impact of multi-tiered explicit and systematic narrative language instruction on the language students are expected to understand and produce in the school setting (e.g., reading and writing). A sample of 210 kindergarten students were assigned to three conditions: treatment, active control, and no-treatment control. The treatment group received Tier 1, whole group contextualized oral narrative language instruction from their classroom teacher twice a week for 15–20 min over 14 weeks. Students who did not make adequate progress after one month of the large group instruction were assigned to receive additional 20-min Tier 2, small group narrative language intervention sessions, delivered by speech-language pathologists two times each week. The students assigned to the active control group participated in Tier 1 shared storybook reading instruction with their classroom teacher twice a week for 15–20 min. Students in the no-treatment control group participated in classroom activities that were in place at the outset of the school year. Narrative and expository language samples elicited at pretest and posttest were analyzed for several features of complex language. Results indicated that students in the contextualized narrative language group produced significantly more complex language with large effect sizes compared to the shared storybook treatment and no-treatment control groups. Additionally, gains in expository language were noted, indicating that the intervention generalized across discourse types. The findings from this study add to a meaningful corpus of research that supports the use of multi-tiered explicit and systematic contextualized narrative language instruction to increase the complexity of the language of young students, including those who are at risk for language learning difficulty.
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-024-10590-z
Abstract
The purpose of this three-arm randomized controlled trial was to explore the im-
pact of multi-tiered explicit and systematic narrative language instruction on the
language students are expected to understand and produce in the school setting
(e.g., reading and writing). A sample of 210 kindergarten students were assigned to
three conditions: treatment, active control, and no-treatment control. The treatment
group received Tier 1, whole group contextualized oral narrative language instruc-
tion from their classroom teacher twice a week for 15–20 min over 14 weeks.
Students who did not make adequate progress after one month of the large group
instruction were assigned to receive additional 20-min Tier 2, small group narra-
tive language intervention sessions, delivered by speech-language pathologists two
times each week. The students assigned to the active control group participated
in Tier 1 shared storybook reading instruction with their classroom teacher twice
a week for 15–20 min. Students in the no-treatment control group participated in
classroom activities that were in place at the outset of the school year. Narrative
and expository language samples elicited at pretest and posttest were analyzed for
several features of complex language. Results indicated that students in the contex-
tualized narrative language group produced signicantly more complex language
with large eect sizes compared to the shared storybook treatment and no-treatment
control groups. Additionally, gains in expository language were noted, indicating
that the intervention generalized across discourse types. The ndings from this
study add to a meaningful corpus of research that supports the use of multi-tiered
explicit and systematic contextualized narrative language instruction to increase the
complexity of the language of young students, including those who are at risk for
language learning diculty.
Keywords Narrative intervention · Language · Storytelling · Contextualized
language intervention · Language comprehension
Accepted: 1 September 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024
Explicit and systematic narrative language instruction
to improve language comprehension: a three-arm
randomized controlled trial
Douglas B.Petersen1· MaureenStaskowski2· MatthewFoster3·
KareeDouglas4· AlisaKonishi-Therkildsen1· Trina D.Spencer5
Extended author information available on the last page of the article
1 3
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
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