Abstract
Tablets and computers offer opportunities for learning, but their potential is only as great as the quality of the software they propose. Educational games must not only provide an engaging design, but also be based on principles from cognitive neuroscience and education research, and be evaluated in large-scale classroom tests. Here, we describe ELAN, an adaptive game that supports literacy acquisition through teaching and training phonics. It provides explicit systematic grapheme–phoneme correspondence instruction and reinforces full decoding through reading and spelling practice with 100% decodable text. The game also uses periodical lexical decision tasks to measure the transition from letter-by-letter decoding to fluent word recognition. The software was tested in a randomized control trial in 44 first-grade classrooms (n = 975 French children). Children who used ELAN software during the first term improved relative to two control groups, respectively, using math software or no-tablet “business-as-usual” classrooms. Improvements were significant in reading fluency (one-minute word and pseudo-word reading) and sentence reading comprehension, consistent with the idea that improved decoding can help the child focus on understanding. These results emphasize the importance of early, explicit and systematic phonics training, and provide a new software tool to facilitate it.
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Acknowledgements
Funding for this work was provided by Bpifrance, the public French bank under the mandate of the Government under the Programme Investissement d'Avenir (investing for the future). The authors would like to thank many other people who contributed to this project: Lilliane Sprenger-Charolles, Gaëlle Olivier, Thibault Petit, Stéphanie Philippe, Bruce McCandliss, and Isabelle Denghien. We are exceptionally grateful to our partner the Academy of Poitiers, in particular, Dominique Quéré (Délégué Académique au Numérique), Cedric Couvrat (Délégué académique au numérique Adjoint pour le 1er degré), and the school district team that tested and accompanied the participating classes. A very special thanks to the teachers who participated in this project and their pupils and families.
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We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication. We also wish to draw the attention of the Editor to the following facts: A ‘Cooperation Accord’ was signed between Manzalab, the labs and the BpiFrance to finance the development and testing of the ELAN software. Manzalab is a private company specializing in serious games, whose role was to develop the software ELAN as a serious game and, if so desired, commercialize the game after testing. The principle roles of the two participating labs were to oversee adherence by the game software to principles from cognitive neuroscience and education research, test game ergonomics and test the ELAN software in a randomized control intervention study. Neither research labs received payment from Manzalab for their involvement in the project, nor are they privy to any financial gain from the dissemination or licensing of the application ELAN. Research in this article was strictly conducted between INSERM and the school district of Poitiers, France. Testers from the school were blind to the intervention and progress made by students, while the researchers in the lab did not participate in testing. Only the ‘global results’ from the student’s groups has been shared with Manzalab. We confirm that we have given due consideration to the protection of intellectual property associated with this work and that there are no impediments to publication, including the timing of publication, with respect to intellectual property. In so doing, we confirm that we have followed the regulations of our institutions concerning intellectual property.
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Potier Watkins, C., Caporal, J., Merville, C. et al. Accelerating reading acquisition and boosting comprehension with a cognitive science-based tablet training. J. Comput. Educ. 7, 183–212 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-019-00152-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-019-00152-6