Teaching Adults to Read Better and Faster : Results from an Experiment in Burkina Faso
Two cognitively oriented methods were tested in Burkina Faso to help illiterates learn to read more efficiently. These were (a) speeded reading of increasingly larger word units and (b) phonological awareness training to help connect letters to spe...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/05/2378822/teaching-adults-read-better-faster-results-experiment-burkina-faso http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18181 |
| Summary: | Two cognitively oriented methods were
tested in Burkina Faso to help illiterates learn to read
more efficiently. These were (a) speeded reading of
increasingly larger word units and (b) phonological
awareness training to help connect letters to speech.
Learners were given reading tests and a computerized
reaction time test. Although the literacy courses were
shortened by the arrival of rains and government delays, the
piloted methods helped adults read better than those in the
standard "control" classes. Learners enrolled in
the experimental classes performed better on the outcome
tests than did learners enrolled in control classes. Ninety
percent of the possible comparisons between treatment
classes and control classes favored classes receiving
treatments, and 72 percent of the measurements in favor of
treatments were statistically significant. The evidence
suggests that phonological awareness training is
particularly effective in situations where the training
period was short, and that rapid reading was more
advantageous in longer training situations. Overall, the
results are indicative of the potential that scientifically
backed methods have in making adult literacy instruction
more effective. However, due to the short duration of the
classes (3-4 months) learners apparently did not receive
sufficient practice to consolidate skills. Literacy skills
may still be prone to being forgotten if readers do not
learn to read automatically and if opportunities to read are few. |
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