Exploring syntactic structures in first-language education: Effects on literacy-related achievements

Abstract

A quasi-experimental study with 256 German sixth-grade students examined the effects of exploring syntactic structures on literacy-related achievements. The core feature of the instruction was that stu-dents had the opportunity to deal with syntactic structures directly, not mediated by analytic opera-tions. Instruction covered six lessons targeting two types of syntactic contrasts (syntactic category con-trasts, noun case contrasts). The results indicate that students profited from the instruction in their ability to use a marker of syntactic structure in written German, the capitalization of nouns. As to the ability to use the same marker to interpret text read, students of different achievement levels seem to have been differently affected. No effects were found for reading comprehension in general and spelling at the word level. The findings suggest that students' recognition of syntactic categories was enhanced even in contexts other than those they were familiarized within the instruction. However, it was not enhanced when they worked on a task that was completely new to them. © 2013 International Association for the Improvement of Mother Tongue Education.