Reading comprehension improvement in Spanish-speaking students in Early Childhood and Primary Education: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a very complex process in which different processes and knowledge intervene. Consequently, there are different types of interventions that have been shown to be useful for its improvement. Research reviews carried out with Spanish speakers show a positive effect of interventions based on teaching comprehension strategies. Given the lack of recent syntheses of the research carried out with Spanish-speaking students in Early Childhood and Primary Education, a meta-analysis was carried out in which 39 relevant studies were located, from which 44 independent effects were obtained with a combined effect size of 0.57. Five of these effects were detected as atypical results in several analyses. Discarding them, a combined effect of 0.34 is found. Mixed interventions were used in most of the studies included in the meta-analysis. Those that included phonological awareness training produced a significantly greater effect than those that did not have that component. Interventions that included naming speed, oral language, decoding, reading speed, vocabulary, comprehension strategies, comprehension activities or motivation showed positive effects, but without differentiating from interventions that did not include the analyzed component. Some methodological characteristics of the research were associated with significant differences in the effect obtained on reading comprehension.

These results can be useful in making decisions about reading teaching and also show the state of research on reading comprehension in Spanish-speaking students.