GraphoLearn India: The Effectiveness of a Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in Supporting Struggling Readers of English

Abstract

India, a country with a population of more than 1.3 billion individuals, houses the world’s second largest educational system. Despite this, 100 of millions of individuals in India are still illiterate. As English medium education sweeps the country, many are forced to learn in a language which is foreign to them. Those living in poverty further struggle to learn English as it tends to be a language which they have no prior exposure to and no support at home for. Low-quality schools and poor instructional methods further exacerbate the problem. Without access to quality education, these individuals continue to struggle and are ultimately never given the chance to break the cycle of poverty. The aim of this study was to determine whether GraphoLearn, a computer-assisted reading tool, could be used to support the English reading skills of struggling readers in India. Participants were 7-year-old, grade 3 students (N = 30), who were attending an English-medium public school in Ahmedabad, India. English was not a native language for any of the students and all were reading at a level below that of Grade 1 despite having attended school for 2 years. Half of the students played GraphoLearn (n = 16) while the other half played a control math game (n = 14) for 20–30 min a day, over a period of 8 weeks. GraphoLearn led to significant improvements in children’s letter-sound knowledge, a critical factor in early reading development. Overall, the study opens doors for GraphoLearn as a potential intervention to support struggling readers of English in India, including those who are learning a non-native language and coming from at-risk backgrounds.

Critically Reviewing GraphoGame Across the World: Recommendations and Cautions for Research and Implementation of Computer‐Assisted Instruction for Word‐Reading Acquisition

“…Specifically, Huemer et al (2008), Hintikka et al (2008), and Heikkilä et al (2013) found evidence that students improved in syllable reading after GG interventions, but only Hintikka et al found transfer effects. Patel (2018) and Lovio and colleagues (2012) reported that GG students improved in letter sounds and phonological processing, respectively. Similarly, Rosas and colleagues (2017) found that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds playing GG grew in letter sound knowledge and that students from high socioeconomic backgrounds grew in rapid automatized naming.…”

“…Beyond geography, the differentiation possibilities have prompted individual studies of diverse, at-risk learners (see Table 1 for details). Researchers have explored GG's effect on L2 readers (e.g., Oksanen, 2010;Patel, 2018), bilingual students reading in two languages (Baker et al, 2017), and students low socioeconomic backgrounds (Rosas, Escobar, Ramírez, Meneses, & Guajardo, 2017). Researchers have also considered effects for students with cognitive challenges, including rapid automatized naming (Heikkilä, Aro, Närhi, Westerholm, & Ahonen, 2013) and short-term memory (Hintikka, Aro, & Lyytinen, 2005).…”

“…Similarly, in Zambia (Jere-Folotiya et al, 2014) and Tanzania (Ngorosho, 2018), the most successful intervention models were when both teachers and students had the opportunity to play GG, likely allowing teachers to better understand the learning within the game. Likewise, Patel (2018) suggested that the limited effects of GG on word reading was related to a lack of teacher involvement.…”

“…Unfortunately, few authors provided in-depth evidence of treatment fidelity as recommended by the Council for Exceptional Children (Cook et al, 2014) and other frameworks (Dane & Schneider, 1998), which would include coverage of material, student responsiveness (e.g., engagement), and quality of delivery (e.g., interventionist enthusiasm). In fact, multiple researchers voiced concern about students' engagement (Ecochard, 2015;Kamykowska et al, 2014;Oksanen, 2010;Patel, 2018;Ronimus & Lyytinen, 2015), but only more rigorous measures of fidelity could capture this information.…”

(Swiss) GraphoLearn: an app-based tool to support beginning readers

“…The GraphoLearn environment was originally developed in Finnish (Lyytinen, Erskine, Hämäläine, Torppa, & Ronimus, 2015;Richardson & Lyytinen, 2014) and has been adapted for several other languages. In school-children of different backgrounds, GraphoLearn has mainly improved decoding and spelling skills (Jere-Folotiya et al, 2014;Kyle, Kujala, Richardson, Lyytinen, & Goswami, 2013;Ojanen, Kujala, Richardson, & Lyytinen, 2013;Saine et al, 2011) or letter knowledge (Patel, Torppa, Aro, Richardson, & Lyytinen, 2018;Saine et al, 2011;Kamykowska, Haman, Latvala, Richardson, & Lyytinen, 2013), but in some reports, the significant improvements extended to reading skills of young poor readers (Ruiz et al, 2017;Saine, Lerkkanen, Ahonen, Tolvanen, & Lyytinen, 2010). GraphoLearn has also been shown to improve neural specialization to letters in prereaders, reflected in a stronger response to print (letters and letter-like false fonts) in the left occipito-temporal cortex, also known as the visual word-form system (Brem et al, 2010).…”