Effects of dialogic reading with Luganda primary 1 materials on children’s vocabulary and listening comprehension

Abstract

Dialogic reading structures teacher–child interaction around shared texts to support oral language development, yet its effects when integrated with familiar language curriculum materials in Ugandan Primary 1 classrooms remain underexamined. This parallel cluster-randomized trial evaluated a 10-week dialogic reading adaptation integrated into government-aligned Luganda Primary 1 pupil books and teacher guides. Twenty schools in central Uganda, each contributing one classroom, were randomized after baseline assessment to dialogic reading (10 clusters; 232 children) or usual instruction (10 clusters; 231 children). An independent statistician generated and implemented the concealed allocation sequence; outcome assessors were masked. Teachers in the intervention arm used PEER/CROWD-informed prompts within the curriculum’s “I do, We do, You do” sequence. Primary outcomes were Luganda vocabulary (0–20) and listening comprehension (0–12). Intention-to-treat multilevel models adjusted for baseline score, age, recorded sex, and classroom clustering, with Kenward–Roger small-sample inference and multiple imputation for missing post-test data. At post-test, adjusted vocabulary means were 12.6 (SE 0.36) and 9.4 (SE 0.35), respectively (difference 3.2, 95% CI 2.3–4.1; p < .001; Hedges’ g = 0.46). Adjusted listening-comprehension means were 7.8 (SE 0.21) and 6.3 (SE 0.20) (difference 1.5, 95% CI 0.4–2.6; p = .009; g = 0.31). These short-term effects support further evaluation of curriculum-embedded dialogic reading in Luganda-medium classrooms, including longer follow-up and implementation-cost studies.