[Training of Word Recognition with Willy Wordbear: A Syllable-Based Reading Promotion Program for Elementary School]. / Training der Worterkennung mit Willy Wortbär: Ein silbenbasiertes Leseförderprogramm für die Grundschule.

Training of Word Recognition with Willy Wordbear: A Syllable-Based Reading Promotion Program for Elementary School Being able to read words fluently and accurately is an important milestone in learning to read but not all children reach it. For weak readers, it is often difficult to make the transition from letter-by-letter reading to visual word recognition through orthographic comparison processes using larger (sub-)lexical units. The syllable seems to provide a bridge to orthographic decoding for children who learn to read German. Against this background, this replication study investigated the effectiveness of a syllable-based reading training on the visual word recognition and reading comprehension of second graders in an experimental pre-post design. To this end, 101 children whose word recognition performance in a standardized reading test was below the mean value in comparison to the classroom norm were randomly assigned to the experimental group or a waiting control group. Linear models revealed significant improvements in orthographic decoding in the experimental group after completion of the 24-session small group training. Children who received the training of repeated reading and segmentation of frequent syllables were able to recognize words faster and more accurately. These findings are further evidence of the effectiveness of the training for promoting the recognition of written words.

Distinguishing between struggling and skilled readers based on their prosodic speech patterns in oral reading: An exploratory study in grades 2 and 4.

The purpose of this study was to examine if prosodic patterns in oral reading derived from Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) could distinguish between struggling and skilled German readers in Grades 2 (n = 67) and 4 (n = 69). Furthermore, we investigated whether models estimated with RQA measures outperformed models estimated with prosodic features derived from prosodic transcription. According to the findings, struggling second graders appear to have a slower reading rate, longer intervals between pauses, and more repetitions of recurrent amplitudes and pauses, whereas struggling fourth graders appear to have less stable pause patterns over time, more pitch repetitions, more similar amplitude patterns over time, and more repetitions of pauses. Additionally, the models with prosodic patterns outperformed models with prosodic features. These findings suggest that the RQA approach provides additional information about prosody that complements an established approach.

Effects of a Syllable-Based Reading Intervention in Poor-Reading Fourth Graders.

In transparent orthographies, persistent reading fluency difficulties are a major cause of poor reading skills in primary school. The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of a syllable-based reading intervention on word reading fluency and reading comprehension among German-speaking poor readers in Grade 4. The 16-session intervention was based on analyzing the syllabic structure of words to strengthen the mental representations of syllables and words that consist of these syllables. The training materials were designed using the 500 most frequent syllables typically read by fourth graders. The 75 poor readers were randomly allocated to the treatment or the control group. Results indicate a significant and strong effect on the fluency of recognizing single words, whereas text-level reading comprehension was not significantly improved by the training. The specific treatment effect provides evidence that a short syllable-based approach works even in older poor readers at the end of primary school.