Abstract
This study examined the extent to which multimedia features of typical literacy learning software provide added benefits for developing literacy skills compared with typical whole-class teaching methods. The effectiveness of the multimedia software Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) for Clicker in supporting early literacy acquisition was investigated through a classroom-based intervention study by comparing ORT for Clicker to traditional ORT Big Books. Sixty-one typically developing readers, aged 5–6 years, from four primary classes were each given the two interventions. Each intervention was delivered over five one-hour sessions over the course of 1 week. Performance on tasks of written word recognition, written word naming, and phonological awareness, was measured before and after each intervention. Significantly greater gains in word recognition, word naming, rhyme awareness, segmentation skill, and grapheme awareness were found after the ORT for Clicker compared to the traditional ORT Big Book intervention. This study shows that whole-word multimedia software can be more effective than traditional printed texts from the same reading scheme at supporting the development of early literacy skills.
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Notes
Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was significant (p < .05, at least) for some of the baseline measures (i.e., LDT nonwords, LDT all letter strings, rhyme awareness, and grapheme awareness) indicating that these distributions deviated significantly from normality. However, non-parametric analyses, using Friedman’s test followed by Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests, gave the same pattern of results as the parametric analyses reported in text.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Ann Crick of Crick Software for her ideas and suggestions. We also thank the staff and students of St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, Heymann Primary School and Radford Primary School for participating in the study and Maria Ktori, Susannah Kempson and Katherine Siu for their help with data collection. This research was supported by an ESRC Case PhD studentship awarded to Dr. Nicola Pitchford and Professor Claire O’Malley, co-sponsored by Crick Software (grant number PTA-033-2004-00064).
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Appendices
Appendix A
Stimuli used in the lexical decision and oral reading tasks
Reception words | ORT intervention words | Year-1 words | Year-2 words | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Matched nonwords | Words | Matched nonwords | Words | Matched nonwords | Words | Matched nonwords |
and they big see said | ind thim cag teeg faip | about an had help home make over put ran time too took want wanted your after be did good laugh made man pull pulled what | abond en dal welk wame mage ovel pid rop bime noo hoos nand wented yurt dawoe ob tul harc healt yade mun grel heapel whut | bed his more then were once night some came down | det hin moso wesb lere kon yatoe shom hame drot | yellow eight where wednesday these | yelter teigh whust wednesdau thamp |
Appendix B
Literacy hour intervention plan
Session | Duration (min) | Group | Focus | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Shared work | 15 | Whole-class | Focus is on exploration and reading aloud of the story | Big Book: involved reading the story in front of the class and encouraging the children to look at the words and pictures and to read it aloud with the teacher ORT for Clicker: involved reading the story on the interactive white board whilst encouraging the children to look at the pictures and highlighted words and to read the words aloud whilst spoken by the narrator |
Word/sentence level work | 15 | Whole-class | Focus is on a particular part of reading (e.g., grammar & punctuation, vocabulary, or spelling) | Involved activities such as spotting mistakes in sentences, making a word bank, creating new sentences with target words, and completing sentences on the interactive white board activities (ORT for Clicker) or non-interactive white board activities (Big Book) |
Focus | 20 | Individual | Focus is on activities at the word-level, sentence level and comprehension Big Book: children used traditional books, pencil and paper. ORT for Clicker: children worked through a CD-ROM activity on individual PC laptops | Involved identifying spelling patterns, reading and matching words, becoming familiar with word order, writing simple sentences and answering questions based on the story content, and recognizing and reading high frequency words in the book (Big Book) or through listening and finding high frequency words on the screen (ORT for Clicker) |
Plenary session | 10 | Whole-class | Focus on what was taught during the literacy activity | Both interventions: evaluation of what was taught in the literacy hour |
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Karemaker, A.M., Pitchford, N.J. & O’Malley, C. Does whole-word multimedia software support literacy acquisition?. Read Writ 23, 31–51 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-008-9148-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-008-9148-4