Evaluating the Research on the Instruction of Literacy with Language (RILL) intervention programme for children learning through the medium of English
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN18940975 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN18940975 |
| Secondary identifying numbers | EDO/FR-000023452 |
- Submission date
- 23/09/2022
- Registration date
- 27/09/2022
- Last edited
- 30/01/2024
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and overall aims
The Research on the Instruction of Literacy and Language (RILL: www.rillresearch.org) programme began in early 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In its current form, it provides a fun and intensive fifteen-week language and literacy programme that can be delivered either through the medium of English or through the medium of Welsh. Crucially, it applies cutting-edge knowledge from reading science – i.e., what works – and it can be delivered to the child in their home or in the classroom. It is therefore potentially available to highly disadvantaged children (school non-attenders) as well as those able to attend school.
Who can participate?
Children who are in Key Stage 2 (7 – 9 years) with reading difficulties enrolled in mainstream primary schools in the UK.
What does the study involve?
Participants complete short screening tasks to assess reading ability. This is followed by completing short assessment activities measuring reading, writing and language skills with a teaching assistant present. Half of the children will then complete the RILL programme, in which lessons occur twice weekly for 15 weeks (around 45 minutes per lesson). The other half of the children will complete classroom activities as normal and the RILL programme at a later date.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Possible benefits are children's literacy and language skills will improve, teaching assistants' skill levels in delivering interventions will improve, and schools will benefit from support from the team. We anticipate no risk to participants or schools.
Where is the study run from?
Bangor University in collaboration with Leeds Trinity University and the University of Oxford (UK)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
January 2022 to August 2024
Who is funding the study?
Nuffield Foundation (UK)
Who is the main contact?
1. Prof Manon Jones, manon.jones@bangor.ac.uk
2. Dr Cameron Downing, c.downing@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Contact information
Principal Investigator
Brigantia Building
Penrallt Road
Bangor University
Bangor
LL57 2AS
United Kingdom
 ORCID ID |
0000-0003-3266-5472 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +44 (0)1248382319 |
| manon.jones@bangor.ac.uk |
Scientific
Leeds Trinity University
Brownberrie Lane
Leeds
LS18 5HD
United Kingdom
| ORCID ID |
0000-0001-7350-4048 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +44 (0)1132837100 |
| c.downing@leedstrinity.ac.uk |
Scientific
Brigantia Building
Penrallt Road
Bangor University
Bangor
LL57 2AS
United Kingdom
| ORCID ID |
0000-0003-4171-482X |
|---|---|
| Phone | +44 (0)1248388334 |
| m.caravolas@bangor.ac.uk |
Scientific
Braenose College
Radcliffe Square
Oxford
OX1 4AJ
United Kingdom
| ORCID ID |
0000-0001-9499-5958 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +44 (0)1865284096 |
| charles.hulme@education.ox.ac.uk |
Study information
| Study design | Multicentre interventional concealed randomized controlled trial with wait-list control |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Interventional |
| Secondary study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Study setting(s) | School |
| Study type | Treatment |
| Participant information sheet | https://forms.office.com/r/UUDiE2nJas |
| Scientific title | Evaluating the English-medium Research on the Instruction of Literacy with Language (RILL) intervention programme for children with reading difficulties, aged 7 - 9 years old, compared with age-matched, wait-list control children on reading and language measures |
| Study acronym | RILL-Eng |
| Study objectives | Current study hypothesis as of 23/05/2023: We predict that: 1. Children in the experimental group, receiving the RILL intervention, will make greater gains in word-level literacy and reading comprehension 2. Improvements will be maintained six months after intervention at the post-test 3. Reading comprehension improvements will be mediated by the improvements in literacy at the post-test Previous study hypothesis: Children receiving the RILL intervention will make greater gains on literacy and language outcome measures (indices of phonological awareness, word-level decoding and fluency, spelling, and vocabulary) compared with children in the wait-list control group. |
| Ethics approval(s) | Approved 07/09/2022, Ethics board of the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences (Brigantia Building, Penrallt Road, Bangor University, LL57 2AS, UK; +44 (0)1248388740; c.saville@bangor.ac.uk), ref: 2022-17213 |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Children with reading difficulties (e.g., developmental dyslexia) |
| Intervention | Current interventions as of 23/05/2023: Children are randomly allocated, within their class, to the intervention and the waitlist control arm of the study. Children in the intervention arm will receive the RILL programme twice a week for 15 weeks. Each lesson is administered by a trained teaching assistant and lasts ~45 minutes per lesson. The intervention will be administered outside standard literacy instruction. Children in the waitlist control arm will receive standard instruction during the period that the intervention arm receives RILL. Once children in the intervention arm have completed RILL (following the post-test), children in the wait-list control group will then receive RILL (under the same conditions). The RILL intervention: RILL is a highly structured, scripted, programme based closely on earlier demonstrably effective interventions developed by Hulme and colleagues, particularly the Reading with Vocabulary Intervention (REVI) and Reading Intervention programmes. These programmes share a focus on the explicit teaching of vocabulary and phonological awareness, combined with highly structured reading instruction, in which the word and text level information is matched to the learner’s level. In addition, lessons are short but regular (National Literacy Strategy, 2000) which is in line with theories concerning the importance of distributed learning for effective memory consolidation. RILL targets specific skills related to the development of vocabulary and visual word recognition suitable for children of all abilities in children aged 7 – 9 years old. Language-rich interventions, focusing on vocabulary development and word decoding provide the foundations for strategic and automatic reading comprehension. We developed RILL as a distilled literacy programme which focuses on targeting empirically validated literacy-related skills by adapting demonstrably effective instructional techniques for delivery online. 1. Words of the Day (5 minutes): Vocabulary is targeted via direct instruction in the meaning and written form of 2 words each day. We selected Tier 2 words which are high frequency for mature language users, utilised across multiple domains, have good instructional potential and build upon children’s conceptual understanding. 2. Passage of the Day (10 minutes): Reading is targeted by asking children to read a passage aloud, containing the words of the day. The instructor asks two-to-three comprehension questions for each text. 3. Word Games (5 minutes): Phonemic awareness is trained by asking children to blend words. 4. Word Writing (10 minutes): Spelling is trained by first training letter-sound knowledge (if needed) and then focusing on specific vowel-spelling patterns. 5. Story Time (5 minutes): Narrative skills are trained by focusing on one key narrative skill (characters, sequencing, structuring, elaborating, connectives, and verb use) in both the verbal and written domains. These skills are used to construct a story over the last 10 sessions. 6. Words of the Day Recap (5 minutes): Words of the day are recapped by asking the child to recall the words, define them, and produce examples of using the words in context. Previous interventions: For the intervention arm, children will receive the RILL intervention programme twice a week for 15 weeks. Each lesson is administered by a trained teaching assistant and lasts for up to 45 minutes per lesson. The intervention will be administered outside standard literacy instruction. The waitlist control arm will receive standard instruction during the period that the intervention arm receives RILL. After the children in the intervention arm receive RILL, children in the wait-list control group will then receive RILL (under the same conditions). |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure | Current primary outcome measures as of 23/05/2023: The following primary outcome measures are assessed at baseline, post-test (following the intervention, which is +15 weeks) and follow-up (+ an additional 15 weeks) and reflect two latent literacy variables: 1. Word-level reading measured using measures created from single-word reading, single-word spelling, word fluency and pseudoword fluency taken from Word Reading Accuracy (Wide Range Achievement Test 5th edition; WRAT-5) 2. Reading comprehension measured using the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension Passage Reading (YARC Passage Reading) Previous primary outcome measures: Latent literacy measured using a variable created from the measures of single-word reading, single-word spelling and passage-reading accuracy used at each timepoint from baseline (pre-test) to post test (15 weeks) |
| Secondary outcome measures | Current secondary outcome measures as of 23/05/2023: The secondary outcome measures include those measuring the language skills of phonemic awareness (Multilanguage Assessment Battery of Early Literacy; MABEL) and vocabulary (expressive vocabulary assessment of items taught during the RILL programme itself). Measures are taken at baseline, post-test (following the intervention, which is +15 weeks) and follow-up (+ an additional 15 weeks). Previous secondary outcome measures: 1. Phoneme awareness measured using MABEL phoneme deletion in English and Welsh at pre and post test 2. Vocabulary measured using a criterion reference test at pre and post test 3. Rapid naming measured using the MABEL test battery at pre and post test |
| Overall study start date | 07/01/2022 |
| Completion date | 01/08/2024 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Other |
|---|---|
| Age group | Child |
| Lower age limit | 7 Years |
| Upper age limit | 9 Years |
| Sex | Both |
| Target number of participants | 400 |
| Key inclusion criteria | Current participant inclusion criteria as of 23/05/2023: 1. Children aged 7 - 9 years old 2. Undertaking English-language instruction at school 3. Normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing 4. Identified as having literacy difficulties via a reading screener Previous participant inclusion criteria: 1. Children aged 8 - 10 years old 2. Undertaking English-language instruction at school 3. Normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing 4. Identified as having literacy difficulties via a reading screener |
| Key exclusion criteria | Children not in a mainstream school setting |
| Date of first enrolment | 01/09/2022 |
| Date of final enrolment | 01/07/2023 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- United Kingdom
- Wales
Study participating centre
Bangor
LL57 2DG
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Charity
c/o Eleanor Ireland
100 St John Street
London
EC1M 4EH
England
United Kingdom
| Phone | +44(0)20 7631 0566 |
|---|---|
| info@nuffieldfoundation.org | |
| Website | http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/ |
"ROR" |
https://ror.org/0281jqk77 |
Funders
Funder type
Charity
Private sector organisation / Trusts, charities, foundations (both public and private)
- Location
- United Kingdom
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | 01/12/2024 |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | Yes |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Stored in non-publicly available repository |
| Publication and dissemination plan | Planned publication in a high-impact, peer-reviewed journal |
| IPD sharing plan | The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study will be stored in a publically available repository (http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk); raw, anonymised data will become available 12 months after data collection and available indefinitely (or until a date decided upon at a later date). Open data will be available to anyone via mechanisms available in reshare (the licence applied to the data will be attribution non-commercial share alike: CC BY-NCSA). Consent will be obtained from participants to share anonymised data. |
Editorial Notes
30/01/2024: The following updates have been made:
1. The overall study end date was changed from 01/01/2024 to 01/08/2024.
2. The intention to publish date was changed from 01/07/2024 to 01/12/2024.
3. The PI's title was updated.
23/05/2023: The following updates have been made to the study record and the plain English summary updated accordingly:
1. The public title has been changed from "Evaluating the Research on the Instruction of Literacy with Language (RILL) intervention programme children learning through the medium of English" to "Evaluating the Research on the Instruction of Literacy with Language (RILL) intervention programme for children learning through the medium of English".
2. The scientific title has been changed from "Evaluating the Research on the Instruction of Literacy with Language (RILL) intervention programme for children with reading difficulties, aged 8 - 10 years old, compared with age-matched, wait-list control children, learning through the medium of English, on reading and language measures" to "Evaluating the English-medium Research on the Instruction of Literacy with Language (RILL) intervention programme for children with reading difficulties, aged 7 - 9 years old, compared with age-matched, wait-list control children on reading and language measures".
3. The study hypothesis has been changed.
4. The interventions have been changed.
5. The primary outcome measures have been changed.
6. The secondary outcome measures have been changed.
7. The participant inclusion criteria have been changed.
8. The target number of participants has been changed from 360 to 400.
9. The recruitment end date has been changed from 01/12/2022 to 01/07/2023.
10. The intention to publish date has been changed from 01/04/2024 to 01/07/2024.
26/09/2022: Trial's existence confirmed by the Ethics board of the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences.
