The “Königreichmodell” at primary level

This paper presents results on the effectiveness of the Königreichmodell (Kingdom Model) for promoting comma competence among fourth-grade students. The study compares an intervention group (N = 39) that learned the model in their classroom with a control group (N = 34) that received no specific intervention. The results show that students in the intervention group made significant progress in placing norm-conforming obligatory commas, while the frequency of placing incorrect commas decreased markedly. In contrast, students in the control group showed no significant changes. The placement of optional initial and closing commas remained unchanged in both groups, indicating that students relied on their own strategies in these cases. The study suggests that the ”Königreichmodell” is particularly well-suited to help fourth-graders master the correct use of sentence boundary commas.