L-CYR Seminar Series: The MORPH Project

Dr Danielle Colenbrander (University of Bristol) presents a study which looks at the effectiveness of a morphological instruction method for improving children’s reading and spelling skills.

Dr Danielle Colenbrander (University of Bristol) presents 'The MORPH Project: A randomised controlled trial of morphological instruction for children with reading and spelling difficulties' as part of the Leeds Centre for Interdisciplinary Childhood and Youth Research (L- CYR) Seminar Series.

This seminar will discuss the findings from a study which looked at the effectiveness of a morphological instruction method for improving children’s reading and spelling skills.

Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of a morphological instruction method called Structured Word Inquiry (Bowers & Kirby, 2010) was compared to a comparison training programme in which children were taught word meanings and reading comprehension strategies (Motivated Reading). Two-hundred and seventy children in Years 3 and 5 took part. Instruction was delivered to small groups by teaching assistants for 24 weeks. Preliminary results suggest that Motivated Reading Instruction was more effective than Structured Word Inquiry for the children with the weakest reading and spelling skills, while the opposite was true for children with the highest pre-test scores. Possible reasons for this finding will be discussed.

Dr Danielle Colenbrander is a Research Associate at the University of Bristol. She trained as a speech language therapist before completing her PhD exploring the role of oral vocabulary in reading comprehension difficulties. She is interested in relationships between oral language, reading aloud and reading comprehension, and in how difficulties in these areas can be remediated.

Booking

All welcome, no registration required.

Location details

Coach House
School of Education
Hillary Place
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT

View campus map