The Effectiveness of a Language Comprehension Intervention on the Language, Reading, and Writing Skills of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students

ABSTRACT This pre‐registered randomized controlled trial tests the impact of a language comprehension intervention on the language and literacy of 448 upper elementary Roma and non‐Roma students from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. The students from the intervention group participated in 132 language comprehension intervention sessions (designed by a research team) which focused on Tier 2 vocabulary instruction and development of expressive language skills. The control group received language instruction designed by their classroom teachers. The effects were statistically significant immediately after the intervention and 8 months later on the words taught during the intervention, and on the listening and reading comprehension of stories which included taught words. The effects on the standardized vocabulary were statistically significant immediately after the intervention only for the students with weaker initial standardized vocabulary. There was also a significant main effect on standardized vocabulary 8 months after the intervention. There were no statistically significant effects on standardized tests of word reading, written composition, listening and reading comprehension. When controlling for compliance, results showed the same pattern, but with slightly larger effect sizes. Monolingual Roma and non‐Roma students improved at a similar rate on most measures, but the effects were significantly smaller for bilingual Roma students on vocabulary and listening comprehension tests which included taught words. Thus, language comprehension interventions targeting socioeconomically disadvantaged students can have limited positive effects on the language and literacy development. Future studies should examine whether more comprehensive interventions targeting broader aspects of children's lives might have more profound effects.