Nurturing a lexical legacy: understanding the transition from novice-to-expert in children's reading development

The written word is arguably the greatest cultural invention. Orthography (the conventional writing system of a language) provides a set of tools that allows us to write words so that others who share our tools can also share our thoughts, ideas, and dreams. The written word allows us to create narratives that play to our imaginations or teach us about the world; the written word transcends space and time and it is almost impossible to imagine the world without it. For skilled readers, the connection between the letters on the page and the image they construe in our minds is so fast, so rich in content and so automatic, we rarely stop to think of the underlying complexities of what we do as we read. Yet, learning to read is hard. It takes time and requires instruction. Reading is a skill and like other skills, practice is critical to making the transition from novice-to-expert.

The scientific study of reading has taught us a good deal about the early stages of reading development. We know that children need to acquire the "alphabetic principle" - the fundamental insight that in a language like English, letters code for meaning via sound. This allows children to decode - to "sound-out" words and thus discover the spelling-sound correspondences that characterize their language. Evidence from a large research base has translated to the classroom with a phonics-based reading curriculum characterising the teaching of reading in the early years in the UK.

Critically however, we know relatively little about how children develop from novice-to-expert: how do children move from the laborious process of decoding individual words to the sense of effortlessness we, as skilled readers, experience as we read? This is important for a full theoretical understanding of how the reading system works. A better understanding of this will help to devise curriculum materials and instructional approaches that promote learning. This is vital: despite a phonics-rich curriculum, too many children are failing to make the transition from novice-to-expert, as evidenced by the large number of children who enter secondary school with unacceptably low levels of literacy skill. This has serious consequences, given that literacy is crucial to educational, cultural and economic advancement as well as social well-being.

The research described in this proposal aims to fill this gap in our knowledge. Carefully controlled experiments that nevertheless mimic the natural reading process will test out a number of hypotheses about how to promote children's learning about words via their reading experiences. A range of questions is asked: How do children deal with new words that they encounter for the first time when reading a story? How do we best structure and organise reading practice so as to optimize word learning and reading development? Do new words need to be encountered many times in order to be learned properly and if so, how many times and should the context in which they occur vary or stay the same? Is it better to learn little and often, or massed into one go? Does testing children's fragile knowledge while they are still in the process of learning ultimately lead to better retention in the longer term? And why is it that some children fail to make progress with learning to read?

Answers to these questions will inform critical aspects of reading theory that are currently underspecified, namely how children move from being an effortful decoder to an effortless skilled reader. Our experiments will provide insights on how to best optimize reading practice for long-term learning in the classroom, with the ultimate aim of supporting more children to make a successful transition from novice-to-expert.

Who will benefit?

The proposed research has implications that have the potential to influence a number of groups in wider society. These include teachers and education practitioners, policy makers, third sector organisations (e.g. charities that support children with reading difficulties) and children and their families. Many children do not make the transition from novice to expert, as evidenced by the high number of children entering secondary school with low levels of literacy skill (Department of Education; in Higgins et al., 2014). The social, educational and economic consequences of this could be lessened by appropriate teaching and intervention, informed by theoretical advances in understanding what children need to learn.

How will they benefit?

To develop effective and evidence-based teaching of literacy, we need to determine the key factors that contribute to successful reading development. The proposed research will do this. Findings will be shared with the wider community and relevant stakeholders so as to provide opportunities for dissemination and interactive discussion between research and practice (see Pathways to Impact for discussion of how we propose to optimize this). The involvement of Co-I Castles will allow findings to be translated to the Australian setting, where appropriate, thus enhancing the international reach of our work.

1. Teachers and education practitioners
The proposed research will benefit teachers, special educational needs co-ordinators, teaching assistants and other education professionals. It will articulate how children move from novice-to-expert. Our novel methodology will distinguish between immediate learning that might be fragile and partial, and longer term learning. Our data should highlight how to optimize reading practice for learning. For example, if our experiments demonstrate that long-term learning is enhanced if material is presented spaced over time rather than massed, or if retrieval practice via repeated testing is seen to promote long-term learning, implications for classroom teaching are clear: space out learning episodes across days or weeks, and create regular opportunities for pupils to retrieve their knowledge. Evidence-based teaching practice regarding phonics instruction in the early years is well-established in policy and teacher training; by developing and testing the lexical legacy framework we hope to establish, in the longer term, a similar evidence-based practice approach for supporting children as they move from novice-to-expert in the later primary years.

2. Policy makers and charities supporting children's education
Much attention has rightly been given to the development of a phonics-based curriculum to support word reading development both in the UK (Department for Education and Skills, 2006) and in Australia (Rowe, 2005). Importantly though, the reading curriculum needed to foster the later stages of word reading development has received less research attention. Our research has the potential to influence policy decisions by highlighting the importance of reading experience, and specifying how successful long-term learning can be promoted by modifying the nature and structure of children's reading experience. This is especially important for those children from less-advantaged backgrounds where access to resources that encourage reading practice in a full and varied manner (e.g., books in the home, access to libraries and the internet) are more limited.

3. Children
Finally our research will benefit children themselves. First, the children who take part in our experiments will benefit from one-to-one reading practice and exposure to new words, and an opportunity to focus on tasks which they find interesting and fun. Second, children will benefit in the longer term through potential improvements to educational practice and policy which will be informed by a stronger evidence base, as a consequence of our research.