Multilanguage Assessment Battery of Early Literacy (MABEL): A web-based resource for diagnosing literacy skills in various monolingual and bilingual settings [REF2021]

Description of impact

Bangor’s research led by Caravolas directed the development and adaptation of the Enhancing Literacy Development in European Languages (ELDEL) test materials into a 15-test battery, produced in parallel in English, Spanish, Czech, Slovak, and Welsh, hosted on language-specific web sites. With 9 of the tests evaluating cognitive risk markers of concurrent or later-emerging reading and spelling difficulties, and another 6 tests measuring reading and spelling skills themselves, the Multilanguage Assessment Battery of Early Literacy (MABEL) battery can be used in part to assess specific skills, or as a comprehensive early literacy evaluation.

MABEL is the only multi-lingual battery for assessing monolingual, bilingual, and second language learners of any combination of the MABEL languages. Additionally, MABEL is the only available norm-referenced diagnostic battery specifically focusing on early literacy and related skills in Czech, Slovak and Welsh and is now being used by a broad range of practitioners.

Impact is claimed between 31 August 2019 and December 2020, and is preceded by conferences and symposia for practitioners on the theoretical and empirical basis of the MABEL resource from September 2018 to June 2019. There were significant delays in impact acceleration due to COVID-19 as a result of school closures internationally, between March 2020 and August 2020.

Uptake by primary beneficiaries (literacy practitioners): The greatest uptake to date is in Slovakia, with 370 users representing approximately 80% of the country’s special educational needs and speech and language pathology assessment clinics [5.1, 5.2]. In the Czech Republic 148 practitioners are using MABEL across 48% of Czech specialist assessment centres [5.3, 5.4]. In countries at more recent stages of roll out, the distribution is UK with 86 users (of which 59 in Wales) representing 15 local authorities [5.5], and Andalucía, Spain with 25 users to date [5.6, 5.7]; these numbers represent approximately 10% to 25% of the eligible professionals using the tool even at this early stage. As part of the computer assisted assessment of phoneme awareness skills using MABEL, online versions of 2 gold standard tasks (Phoneme Deletion and Phoneme Blending) have been developed in collaboration with the Psychometrics Centre at Cambridge University [5.8]. The tool is independently promoted in the UK by ‘RealLearners’, a company committed to supporting children learning English [5.9].

Uptake in “non-MABEL” countries: Additionally, 75 subscribers (literacy practitioners / teachers) from 15 different countries such as Canada, Australia, France and Hong Kong, use MABEL to carry out assessments for children who are learning in English in addition to the home language. The Spanish version of MABEL is being used by practitioners in Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America, in particular Argentina (85 users) [5.10], where MABEL represents the first battery of its type.

Website impact indicators: Interest in and uptake of the tool is progressing rapidly and has received 103,703 hits by 26,094 visitors between August 2019 and December 2020. Between the 750 registered users, 6,843 test packs have been downloaded to date. Approximately 25% of registered users have accessed at least 2 and often even 3, language versions in their assessments, confirming the multilingual benefits of the MABEL tool. Further, a survey of 120 users across the main countries revealed that the majority used either the whole battery (70%), or approximately half of its 14 tests (30%) and most use the tests on a regular basis (at least once per week 34%; at least once per month 44%). The survey also confirms that MABEL is being used by a broad range of practitioners, especially where suspected literacy difficulties are confounded with imperfect command of the language of school learning: educational psychologists (47%); qualified specialist teachers in schools (22%); speech and language pathologists (9%); and academic research settings (7%). The level of the tool's utility for their clinical practice reported by the users was extremely high (91%)

Students: Approximately 110 final-year students of professional degrees such as Speech Therapy, Educational Psychology, Specialist Dyslexia diploma, from 7 countries (England, Wales, France, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Spain and Argentina) have also registered for MABEL, under the supervision of their academic mentor. These students represent the next generation of practitioners who will have MABEL as part of their starting professional testing repertoire.

Accreditation of MABEL training courses: The MABEL researchers have created a one-day training course for practitioners on best clinical usage of the MABEL battery. 5 courses have been delivered between May 2019 and February 2020: Bratislava (Pan-European University, 55 and 65 participants), Prague (Charles University, 30 participants) and Bangor (Bangor University, 26 and 18 participants) with 100% of attendees subscribing to use the tool. A one-day training course has also been presented at Comenius University in Bratislava to 40 Speech and Language Therapy students and at Pan-European University to 20 Clinical Psychology students. The training course has been accredited by the Chamber of Slovak Psychology Association for 8 CPD credits; the Czech Ministry of Education, and the Miles Dyslexia Centre by affiliation with the British Dyslexia Association (and thereby also with the Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties (PATOSS)) for 7 CPD credits.

Example of MABEL’s success: A longitudinal study of Czech and Slovak child populations at family risk of dyslexia [5.11], demonstrated MABEL’s core foundational predictor skills to clearly differentiate groups who went on to develop reading and spelling difficulties in primary school.

Impact Summary for the General Public

Low literacy attainment affects one in five 15-year-olds in Europe, with consequences for a range of long-term prospects, but may be averted with early diagnosis of risk and timely interventions. A Bangor-led international group of researchers developed the Multilanguage Assessment Battery of Early Literacy (MABEL) - the first freely-available, web-based resource, uniquely offering a battery of tests across five languages for monolingual, bilingual, and second language assessment. Primary beneficiaries of MABEL since September 2019 are 750 practitioners in 22 countries previously lacking objective, high quality, evidence-based assessments for early detection of children’s risk for, and manifestations of, literacy failure.

Description of the underpinning research

An estimated 20% of the global population are completely illiterate with a further three billion people struggling with basic reading and writing. This costs the global economy approximately GBP800,000,000,000 each year and causes long-term personal and social impacts on a person’s quality of life. Educational policy in most European countries requires early identification of literacy difficulties in order to implement interventions to avert or alleviate children’s reading and spelling problems. However, many educational and clinical contexts lack assessment tools for early detection.

A Bangor-led international group of researchers addressed this need by developing the Multilanguage Assessment Battery of Early Literacy (MABEL) offering appropriate, evidence-based test packages. MABEL arises from the first longitudinal, multilanguage study of early literacy development, Enhancing Literacy Development in European Languages (ELDEL), a five-year programme led by Bangor’s Markéta Caravolas and funded by the European Commission [3.a]. ELDEL colleagues from England (University of York), Wales (Bangor University), Spain (University of Granada), France (Universities of Clermont Ferrand and Poitiers) Czech Republic (Charles University), and Slovakia (Comenius University), investigated key theoretical and empirical issues, including the universals and specifics of typical literacy development, and identification of cognitive risk factors for poor literacy development. Markéta Caravolas led the critical design and creation of a reliable, carefully-matched, cross-linguistically valid tool for measuring individual differences in literacy attainment (reading and spelling skills) as well as for assessment of cognitive abilities as markers of risk of literacy difficulties in young children.

Between 2008 and 2012, 907 children were followed simultaneously across ELDEL countries with twice yearly parallel tests of literacy and literacy-related skills development. ELDEL’s, Bangor-led, key published research findings underscoring the validity of the MABEL battery include:

Universal precursors of early literacy: A study of the foundations of literacy [3.1] tracking children from mid-Kindergarten/Reception Year to mid-Grade 1, confirmed that individual differences in reading and spelling ability in 1st grade were strongly and similarly predicted by three skills measured prior to, or at the start of, schooling in English, Spanish, Czech and Slovak. The skills were knowledge of alphabet letters, awareness of speech sounds (phonemic awareness), and the ability to name visual objects quickly (oral naming fluency). These skills have since been shown to continue their long-term influence on reading comprehension skills through to second grade [3.2].

Language-specific differences in rate of learning to read: Studies of the development of reading from Kindergarten through to the end of 2nd grade [3.2, 3.3, 3.4] demonstrated that various word reading skills are acquired more quickly in consistent orthographies (Spanish, Czech, Slovak) than in English. However, despite the learning advantages of consistent orthographies, letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, and oral naming fluency predict reading success or difficulty across all languages.

Universals and language-specifics in assessing spelling development: As with reading, children’s attainments in spelling are predicted by the same trio of foundational skills, irrespective of the orthography being learned [3.1]. Further studies [3.5] showed for the first time that despite the myriad differences in the spoken and written features of languages, the patterns of learning to spell are broadly universal, and can be assessed with measures suitable for direct cross-linguistic comparisons of orthographic knowledge.

Sensitivity and specificity of the MABEL battery: A discriminant function analysis showed MABEL to surpass established thresholds for excellent sensitivity and specificity in differentiating between British-English groups with and without dyslexia [3.6].

This body of work confirms the universal nature of the cognitive underpinnings of early literacy that are observable when relevant language and literacy skills are measured with high quality, clinically sensitive, and parallel tests across languages.

Impact status	Ongoing
Impact date	2018 → 2020
Category of impact	Societal
Impact level	Benefit