International comparative measures show that South Africa has extremely low standards in reading. A variety of programmes aimed at boosting reading have been developed, however, the effectiveness of these programmes is unclear. Prior reviews of effective reading instruction practices have focused almost exclusively on learners whose first language…

Background: People with aphasia (PWA) frequently experience difficulties in understanding longer written content such as paragraphs or books. Reading strategies are a promising approach to treat text-level reading comprehension deficits in PWA. Nevertheless, empirical evidence for their efficacy remains rare. Aims: The primary objective of this…

Background: Research has suggested that background music can have a positive or negative effect that can influence the affective state of individuals. Although research has demonstrated that fear negatively influences our cognitive performance, there is a research gap in understanding the combined effects of different background music tempo and…

Having the ability to read is an essential skill for an individual. However, comprehension, the aim of reading, is a complex cognitive process that involves constructing meaning through deliberate thinking. Unfortunately, students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle with reading, which impairs their comprehension abilities. Repeated…

Differentiated instruction (DI) is a teaching approach involves several strategies in which teachers adapt, modify, adjust and change instruction to respond to students' diverse individual needs in heterogeneous classrooms. The study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of DI on secondary stage students' proficiency level. The study followed the…

Mind-wandering during reading is often associated with worse comprehension performance. Research suggests that metacognitive competences (i.e., the knowledge about as well as monitoring and regulation of one's own cognitive processes) are positively related to reading performance and may play a role in the prevalence of mind-wandering. However,…

Two groups were formed in a randomized, controlled trial: an Experimental group (n = 346), which benefited from specific interventions by trained teachers for a period of two years, and a Control group (n = 1354) with business as usual. For Experimental group in Kindergarten, the interventions were conducted in small groups and focused on…

Reading comprehension is necessary among pupils as it is the foundational skills for the overall academic success of elementary learners, particularly Grade 4 pupils. It is the ability to understand and engage with text passages which is critical for a lifelong learning and a foundation for education. Nonetheless, many pupils are struggling with…

Studies have shown that dialogic instruction can promote reading comprehension, but its contribution to lower-level skills like reading fluency is not as well understood. The paper reports on a dialogically oriented small group intervention for struggling second-grade Hebrew readers, targeting both comprehension and fluency. Rather than top-down…

Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) have been found to benefit human emotional state and cognitive performance. Recent applications of AAI have extended to classrooms with a range of intentions including to improve literacy. This Canadian study sought to examine differences in reading performance and behaviour in early readers identified as…

In this study, we tested the effect of emotion-supported dialogic reading on word learning, story comprehension, and emotion recognition skills of 3-4 years old children. We conducted a within-subject design with a group where the children participated only in dialogic reading sessions (control) and a group where children participated…

A growing body of research has examined the incorporation of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) into Second Language (L2) instruction in various settings. Despite pedagogical innovations in L2 classrooms, little research has embodied retrospective explorations of the impact of ELF interventions with concrete instruments to measure the exact change…

Recently, concerns have been raised about Arabic-speaking students' reading achievement in Israel. Understanding language teachers' ability to identify poor reading skills is crucial to improve students' literacy outcomes. This pilot study examined three main aspects: the factors Arabic-speaking language teachers use to determine their third-grade…

This study examined an intervention program designed to enhance reading comprehension among struggling readers from low socioeconomic backgrounds by improving their understanding of word structure and meaning. Delivered by college education students, the program targeted second-grade students. Change scores in morphological awareness (MA),…

Conceptual knowledge goal (CKG) is a typical component of outcome-based learning. However, the contribution of CKG to poor readers' reading comprehension development remains unclear. Following the suggestion of the Simple View of Reading theory for the poor reader category, the current study recruited 90 poor decoders (PD), 76 poor comprehenders…