Preliminary Report on the Reading Speed Research Project

The Institute for Learning (IfL) at Hull University has had a long and successful association with Parkstone Primary School. In the early 1990s the Institute was approached by the headmaster of the school, Kent Dewar, with the suggestion that our computer expertise could be used to support children who were having reading difficulties. The results of that research were published in the British Journal of Educational Technology (Spencer, 1996). The outcome of this research was the proposal that the English language was the main cause of pupil difficulties in reading. With the introduction of Synthetic Phonics to the school, through its association with the Institute for Learning at the University, we began a study of spelling and reading in the school. We found that the main problem for children was the inconsistency of the English written language, and we identified three causal factors. Two research papers have recently been published in the British Journal of Psychology which summarise the data collected at Parkstone School (Spencer, 2007, in press). Our most recent study, conducted during this academic year, has demonstrated that the factors that have been identified in spelling and reading accuracy also play a major role in the reading speed of older children.