The 20-week version of NELI improved language skills by an estimated two months of progress, though the evidence is less secure than for the 30-week version¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3 · i1 small
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i1 Children receiving the 20-week version showed an effect equivalent to about two months of additional progress, with a confidence interval that slightly includes zero. → Sibieta 2016

Evidence¶

Sibieta 2016¶

Sibieta, L., Kotecha, M., & Skipp, A. (2016). Nuffield Early Language Intervention: Evaluation report and executive summary. Education Endowment Foundation. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects/language-for-learning/

q3 · i1 · causal · r2

Same child-level randomised trial of 350 pupils; the summary impact table reports an effect size of "0.16 (-0.02; 0.34)" for the 20-week group versus untreated control, equivalent to "2 months" of progress. The report describes this result as slightly more likely to have occurred by chance than the 30-week result.

"20-week vs. untreated control 0.16 (-0.02; 0.34) 2 months"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Oral Language — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• The 30-week Nuffield Early Language Intervention improved the language skills of children with low language ability, equivalent to about four months of additional progress — related
• Neither the 30-week nor the 20-week version of NELI showed reliable short-term impact on children's word-level literacy skills — related
• Follow-up testing six months after the programmes ended suggested the language impact may have increased over time, but this could not be established with confidence — related