A randomised controlled trial of English Reading Competition: A reading promotion programme based on library collection

The intervention is participating in the Reading Competition. Participation in the competition will be associated with access to reading materials and additional tuition. The design does not allow us to separate out the effect of these different components. But from the point of view of Library Management, this distinction is not necessary, since the bundle of interventions are intrinsic to the delivery of the competition.

The intervention is being implemented for grades 3-6 across four primary schools in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Each grade nominates six pupils for the competition. Hence, 96 pupils will be selected from 4 primary schools for the English reading competition and appreciation of the intangible cultures at the library thus they will constitute the intervention group. Another 96 with will make up the control group.

Randomization is at the level of the individual child, with random assignment occurring in each grade or class in each school. The random selection will be carried out through drawing lots by 192 pupils in total, namely 12 per grade in each school. That is, each grade will nominate 12 pupils for the competition, of which six will be randomly selected to take part. (It is possible that nomination may be at the level of the class. For example, if there are three classes in a grade, the four students are nominated from each class, of which two are selected at random).

The intervention group will be given with reading materials that contain information about intangible culture heritage in China in both English and Chinese, in which the content for reading competition is included. The teachers will rate all of the 192 participants before handing out the reading material and after the competition by the same criteria:
Pronunciation:25 Points; Intonation: 20 Points; Accuracy:15 Points; Fluency:15 Points; Emotions:15 Points: Volume:5 Points; Time Control:5 Points; Total:100 Points.
Since the questionnaires are administered by the teachers, they are kept short and as simple as possible. Blinding of participants and teachers is not possible, as the teachers provide support to the intervention group.

The intervention group will receive the reading material and tutoring by teachers. The control group will not be given with the mentioned material and tutoring prior to the competition. They will receive “traditional teaching” (lecture-based teaching). They will be given the reading materials after the endline survey.

As incentives, especially for the control group, each of the participants and tutoring teachers will be given with a free lesson related to intangible culture heritage Diancha and Guqin respectively. The teachers will be given with gifts.

2024-12-24

2025-01-12

Pupils' interest in using libraries, English reading ability, appreciation of traditional Chinese culture, child self-esteem.

Pupils' interest in using libraries is collected from the child and their parent
Appreciation of traditional Chinese culture is assessed in child questionnaire using questions designed by the authors
English reading ability will be based on teacher assessment
Child-self esteem is measured using the modified Rosenberg scale (Wood, 2021)

None

NA

Randomization is at the level of the child. Each class teacher is asked to nominate four children, of which two are randomly assigned to the treatment, and the other two act as the control.

The intervention group will be given with reading materials that contain information about intangible culture heritage in China in both English and Chinese, in which the content for reading competition is included. The teachers will rate all of the 192 participants before handing out the reading material and after the competition by the same criteria:
Pronunciation:25 Points; Intonation: 20 Points; Accuracy:15 Points; Fluency:15 Points; Emotions:15 Points: Volume:5 Points; Time Control:5 Points; Total:100 Points
Since the questionnaires are administered by the teachers, they are kept short and as simple as possible. Blinding of participants and teachers is not possible, as the teachers provide support to the intervention group.
The intervention group will receive the reading material and tutoring by teachers. The control group will not be given with the mentioned material and tutoring prior to the competition. They will receive “traditional teaching” (lecture-based teaching). They will be given the reading materials after the endline survey.

School teachers were instructed to randomize from the four nominees in their class using a lottery.

We only have one level of randomization: the child

No

We plan to collect data from five schools. Random assignment is within the schools. not between the schools.

192 pupils

192 pupils: 96 treatment and 96 control

The Rosenberg self-esteem scale is a 10 point scale. The sample size will identify a mean difference of 0.6