Lettura ad alta voce e comprensione del testo: un intervento per il successo scolastico nella Scuola Secondaria di Primo Grado

n recent years, interest in reading aloud practices has grown significantly also in the academic field, supported by research that highlights the positive impact of this practice on text comprehension, cognitive skills and student engagement (Batini & Bartolucci, 2020; Batini et al., 2021; Batini et al., 2024; Batini & Toti, 2024). The present project on reading aloud in secon- dary schools in Italy was developed with the aim of addressing the persistent criticality of text comprehension, which represents a key competence not only for school success, but also for active participation in civic life and li- felong learning. In particular, the OECD-PISA and INVALSI surveys have revealed that many Italian students do not reach the minimum levels of text comprehension required for their age group. This deficit, detected in parti- cular among students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and in the southern geographical areas of the country, highlights the importance of new educational strategies to improve this competence. The project takes the form of a research-intervention with a quasi-experi- mental approach, involving 11 secondary school classes located in Turin, a city characterised by high cultural diversity and a high rate of students of immigrant origin. The research design involved dividing the students into two groups: an experimental group, exposed to the practice of reading aloud, and a control group, which followed traditional teaching activities. The study included pre- and post-intervention measurements for both groups, using standardised assessment instruments to measure text comprehension, such as the CO-TT (Comprehension Oral-Test and Treatment) test. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated through a statistical ana- lysis of the collected data. The performance of the students in the experi- mental and control group in pre- and post-intervention measurements was compared. The data were analysed using a repeated-measures ANOVA to assess whether the change in text comprehension scores was statistically si- gnificant. The results showed a substantial improvement in the experimental group, with an average increase of 0,66 points in text comprehension scores compared to the control group, which recorded a decrease of 0,75 points. This result suggests that the practice of reading aloud had a positive effect on the text comprehension of the students involved in the intervention. A more detailed analysis of the data revealed further interesting aspects. Fir- stly, the improvement was particularly significant among students who had low or insufficient levels of text comprehension in the pre-intervention mea- surement. This finding indicates that reading aloud can be an effective tool to help those students who, for various reasons, start from a disadvantaged position compared to their peers.