All Children Learning
Early Grade Learning Brief: YEMEN
I Findings
Two recent empirical studies on early grade reading in Yemen
inform this brief.
Ed Data II study, 2012 (carried out by RTI International with
funding from the US Agency for International Development
[USAID]). This study was conducted in 40 schools with 735
students in Grades 2 and 3 and is statistically representative of
the combined Amran, Lahj, and Sana’a governorates.
Literacy Boost study, 2011 (carried out by Save the Children; funded by Dubai Cares). This purposive
study of 10 Inclusive Education schools and 1 non-program school was carried out with 659 students from
Grades 1, 2, and 3 in three southern governorates (Aden, Lahj, and Abyan).
Fundamental skills for reading development
The following table summarizes results of assessments of fundamental skills in reading from the EdData 11
study.
EGRA subtask
Letter name knowledge
Initial sound identification
Letter sound knowledge
Familiar word reading
Invented word decoding
% students
with zero
scores
Average of correct scores of “readers”
(students with scores higher than zero)
Grade 2
Grade 3
Overall
3%
17 lpm*
22 lpm
19 lpm
66%
10%
10%
10%
33%
5 lpm
5 lpm
5 lpm
43%
7 wpm
12 wpm
9 wpm
53%
3 wpm
5 wpm
4 wpm
* “lpm” = number of letters correctly identified in one minute; “wpm” = number of words read correctly
in one minute.
This brief has been made possible by the
generous support of the American
people through the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID)
for the All Children Learning Workshop
(Rabat, Morocco 2013). The contents are
the responsibility of RTI International and
do not necessarily reflect the views of
USAID or the United States government.
The EdData 11 study found that:
•
•
•
By the end of Grade 3, students in Amran, Lahj, and Sana’a have not acquired sufficient foundational
skills to read and comprehend in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
Students can identify letters, but have not sufficiently learned letter sounds.
Students do not have adequate vocabularies of familiar words and struggle to decode unfamiliar
ones.
In addition,
•
•
Students’ listening comprehension in MSA (the official language of school instruction) is also poor,
with 53% of Grade 2 students and 30% of Grade 3 students unable to answer a single question
correctly about a story read to them.
On a dictation task, 65% of Grade 2 students and 42% of Grade 3 students could not spell correctly
any one of three common words selected from their textbooks.
The Literacy Boost baseline study found similar results:
•
•
•
•
Students’ alphabetic knowledge improved across the early grades; yet, there were still large
percentages of children in each grade who knew fewer than 60% of their letters.
A strong positive correlation was found between letter knowledge and word reading ability.
Children had particular difficulty identifying words that were similar in shape.
Children had particular difficulty identifying words (in MSA) that were less common in their oral
vocabulary.
Oral reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension
On the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) oral reading fluency and comprehension task, the EdData
II study found the following results.
Percentages of students reading at different levels of fluency (40 schools)
Grade 2
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Grade 3
Early Grade Learning Brief: Yemen
Percentages of students answering questions correctly (out of 6 total)
In summary the EdData 11 study found that:
•
Most students in both second and third grade were not reading fluently.
•
43% of Grade 2 and 25% of Grade 3 students could not read a single word of text.
•
Among students who could read at least one word, the Grade 2 average fluency was 11 words
per minute; the average for Grade 3 was 16 words per minute.
•
Very few students could answer half or more of the comprehension questions.
•
Students who could answer 5 out of 6 comprehension questions correctly read at least 45 words
per minute.
•
Students who scored highest on oral reading fluency with connected text (over 30 correct words
per minute) also showed stronger letter – sound knowledge and could read more familiar and
invented words.
The Literacy Boost study (Gavin, 2011) looked at accuracy as well as fluency of oral reading and found that:
•
69% of Grade 1 students, 52% of Grade 2 students, and 29% of Grade 3 students could not read a
single word of a short, grade-appropriate story in one minute.
•
Among students reading at least one word in a minute, oral reading fluency scores for Grade 1
students averaged 6 words in the first minute; for Grade 2 students it was 13 words, and for Grade
3 students, 22 words.
•
Scores in reading accuracy (with time constraint removed) were considerably higher: Grade 1
students could read 11 words correctly; Grade 2 readers 30 words, and Grade 3 students 74
words.
•
On reading comprehension, Literacy Boost results indicated that on average, Grade 3 “readers”
(those who could correctly read at least 8 words from the story) also answered correctly 90% of
comprehension questions about the story. Lower-performing Grade 3 students (those reading
fewer than 8 words of the story) demonstrated a lower average comprehension score of 70%, even
when the story was read to them, suggesting greater difficulty understanding MSA whether read or
spoken (Gavin, 2011).
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Early Grade Learning Brief: Yemen
Factors that help explain reading achievement
In addition to the assessment of students’ reading skills, the EdData II study in Yemen included questions
about students’ home situations, their attendance in school, and their interactions with their teachers.
Analysis revealed the following factors to have significant correlations with reading achievement.
•
Regular attendance: Students who missed at least one day of school the previous week read on
average 2 fewer words per minute.
•
Opportunities to practice reading: Students who reported having time to read at school had
higher scores in familiar word reading and reading fluency.
•
Corrective feedback from the teacher: Teachers who are more engaged in their students’
learning, among other things, provide more feedback. And the data from Yemen show that the
more written feedback in a student’s language book, the better reading achievement.
Corrective feedback and reading achievement
The Literacy Boost study, furthermore, found that:
•
Students from more well-off homes tended to perform better on all literacy measures. Students
with access to books in their home and whose family members engage in reading on a weekly basis
performed better than those who come from homes with a weaker literacy environment.
•
Girls tended to outperform boys on all assessment components, with this advantage increasing
from Grade 1 to Grade 3. By Grade 3, girls outperformed boys by about 5% in letter knowledge
and about 10% in word reading ability.
II Key Issues for Discussion
Strengthening children’s foundational skills as part of reading instruction. Both EdData II and
Literacy Boost studies found weak foundational reading skills, even in Grade 3, which can be traced to lack
of phonetic strategies to assist in learning to read and to poor understanding of spoken MSA.
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Early Grade Learning Brief: Yemen
Reading instruction in Yemen would also benefit from periodic classroom learning
assessments, which teachers could learn to implement themselves. Specific benchmarks for reading skill
development (such as number of correct words read per minute) are very useful for teachers to evaluate
their students’ performance and progress and make decisions about appropriate remediation (Collins and
Messaoud-Galusi, 2012; DeStefano 2012).
Rethinking the content of early grade reading textbooks. The Literacy Boost study found that first
grade textbooks typically used in the sample schools began with entire words, rather than with introducing
the letters of the alphabet in their various shapes, or the sound represented by each letter. Additionally,
the short vowels were not included until the end of the book and even then, not systematically. Instead,
the books used a “whole word approach”, with children taught to recognize words based on their shapes.
The findings suggest that the “whole word” focus of even Grade 1 textbooks is not well-suited for early
grade MSA reading instruction. Children tended to confuse similarly-shaped words, especially given
Arabic’s use of diacritics, which are often the only feature (apart from context) distinguishing one word
from another. The highly phonetic consistency of MSA lends itself well to using phonics and decoding skills
in the early stages of reading instruction, rather than a whole-word approach (Gavin, 2011).
In addition, the vocabulary used in early grade reading textbooks in Literacy Boost sample schools did not
appear to take into consideration the advantage of bridging between Yemeni colloquial Arabic and MSA.
Many words used in these texts were not found in the colloquial language, when in fact through careful
selection, words that were common to both variants of Arabic could have been used. Similarly, at the
sentence level, introducing grammatical structures that are more similar between MSA and colloquial
Arabic (rather than entirely distinct) could be employed in early reading texts. In these ways, children’s
mother tongue can be an asset, rather than an obstacle, in learning to read and understand the formal
language (Gavin, 2011).
Building more positive practices of teacher engagement with students. The EdData II study
showed that a greater level of teacher engagement is associated with higher reading skills. Teachers need
to know how to monitor their students’ work, provide corrective feedback, and assign and correct
homework, among other things.
Creating a rich reading environment. Both EdData II and Literacy Boost studies found that a richer
reading environment is associated with higher reading skills, but many Yemeni children have limited access
to reading materials both in school and at home. Providing children with books is critical if children are to
have the opportunity to practice their reading skills.
Improving student attendance. The EdData II study found that absenteeism and tardiness impede
student learning. Parents can be encouraged to make sure their children attend school on time every day.
Schools also must become environments that are welcoming and safe.
Attending to gender. The gender gap found in the Literacy Boost study suggests that boys may need
additional support in order to prevent these gaps from continuing to widen as they progress to higher
grades (Gavin, 2011).
REFERENCES
Collins, P. and Messaoud-Galusi, S. (March 2012). Student Performance on the Early Grade Reading Assessment
(EGRA) in Yemen (EdData II Task Order No. 7). Washington, DC: USAID/EdData II.
DeStefano, J. (June 2012). Early Grade Reading in Yemen (presentation). Washington, DC: USAID/EdData
II.
Gavin, S. (March 2011). Literacy Boost: Yemen Baseline Report. Sana’a: Save the Children.
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Early Grade Learning Brief: Yemen