A Storytelling Approach on Vocabulary, Reading, and Letter Sound Fluency of Struggling First Graders With German as Second Language With and Without Behavioral Problems
Three weekly storytelling lessons can drive big literacy gains for struggling first-grade second-language pupils.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Seven first-graders who spoke German as a second language got a six-week storytelling package. The kids struggled with reading and had some behavior issues.
Teachers told stories three times a week. Each session packed in new words, letter sounds, and short reading drills. The team tracked vocabulary, letter-sound fluency, and reading scores across baselines.
What they found
Every child made big jumps. Vocabulary scores rose a lot. Letter-sound speed and reading accuracy grew from moderate to large gains.
The multiple-baseline chart showed clear jumps right after storytelling started. Gains held through the final check.
How this fits with other research
Efstratopoulou et al. (2023) worked with French-speaking children with DLD. They used syllable-phoneme drills instead of stories. Both studies got strong reading gains, showing two roads—meaning-rich stories or sound-based drills—lead to the same goal.
Périkel et al. (1974) simply read aloud to preschoolers. Book touching and page turning doubled. Barwasser adds structure and repeats the read-aloud idea for older kids who need more than just listening.
Wang et al. (2026) taught social inferential reading to fourth-graders with autism. Both studies used the same multiple-baseline design and saw large gains, proving the design works across ages and reading targets.
Why it matters
If you run small groups for early readers, try a three-day storytelling cycle. Pick a short book, pre-teach three new words, pause for letter-sound quick fires, then reread. Track each child for one minute on letter sounds and one minute on sight words. You should see a lift in four to six weeks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The number of students learning German as a second language (L2) is steadily increasing. Unfortunately, studies reveal that less-proficient school performance affects a larger proportion of these students and additional behavioral problems can create even greater learning barriers. In order to master a language, the focus is not only on vocabulary, but also on reading, and studies show that multi-component intervention in reading and L2 acquisition is particularly promising. Therefore, this multiple baseline study focuses on a multi-component storytelling intervention on vocabulary, reading, and letter sound fluency of low-achieving first graders with German as L2 with and without behavioral problems (N = 7). The intervention was implemented 3 times a week over a 6-week period. Results show significant large to very large effects on vocabulary and moderate to large effects on letter sound fluency and reading, providing indication for the positive impact of storytelling on multiple aspects simultaneously for the focused sample.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2021 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.683873