LexPro Training

Project Description

Efficient reading was found to involve the fast visual extraction of morphemes from written words. In this project, a training program which was designed to encourage such a reading process in struggling readers of German, is examined in the 5^th-6^th grades. The main research question was whether reading and spelling in these children can be enhanced through a computerized reading training program, which was designed to encourage morphological analysis in word processing. The morphologically based training program consists of a time-restricted presentation of the letters constituting the word-stems within words, which are  presented in a computerized reading task (gespielt->ge-----t). The effects of the program were contrasted with a control training. This study contributed to the understanding of how reading ability can be promoted beyond the early years of reading instruction. Notably, in a recent pilot examination, the morphologically based training procedure showed a positive direction of effects on reading and spelling of dyslexic readers of Hebrew (Bar-Kochva, 2015). Therefore, the examination of the same principles of training in German readers  also contributed to the understanding of whether this program is effective in two languages with distinctively different characteristics.

The project included two studies:

• Study 1: Struggling readers with migration background
• Study 2: Dyslexic readers

Funding

• Study 1: Stiftung Mercator
• Study 2: Minerva Fellowship of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 
  

Publication

Bar-Kochva, I. (2015). An examination of an intervention program designed to enhance reading and spelling through the training of morphological decomposition in Hebrew word recognition. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1-10.

Project Management

Project Details