Impact of storybook reading on second language vocabulary Ana I. Schwartz UTEP

1. Impact of storybook reading on second language vocabularyAna I. Schwartz UTEP

2. Overview • What the research says • What is missing from the research • The pilot study • Future directions

3. Oral storybook exposure and vocabulary acquisition • In general • Storybook exposure => increased vocabulary • How specifically is this link supported? • Is it true for all populations of children? • Low/High SES? • At risk?

4. Unpacking the link • How storybook is delivered • Number of exposures to target word • Type of interaction • Explicit instruction vs. incidental learning

5. How story is delivered • Number of exposures • Repetition is necessary • For completely novel words (e.g., Justice, Meier, Walpole, 2005; Leungy, 1992; Sénéchal, 1997 • At least 2-3 • Biggest gains observed from 2nd to 3rd readings (e.g., Eller, Pappas, & Brown, 1988) • Remaining issues • What about familiar words? What if goal is to increase use of word?

6. How story is delivered • Type of interaction • Greater interaction => better learning • Open ended questions • Re-tellings • Re-phrasings • “Dialogic reading”

7. How story is delivered • Type of interaction • Diaologic reading (Grover Whitehurst) • Evocative techniques • What questions • Evoke a response • Feedback • Expansions • Corrective modeling • Progressive change • Adapting to child’s abilities

8. How story is delivered • Explicit instruction vs. incidental learning • Explicit instruction • Beneficial for lower vocabularies • An extra boost (Coyne, Simmons, Kame’enui, & Stoolmiller, 2004: Senechal, Thomas, & Monker, 1995) • Incidental learning • Words can also be acquired w/o explicit direction (e.g, Eller, Pappas, & Brown, 1988; Leung & Pikulski, 1990)

9. Are there benefits for all populations? • Children at risk? • Yes • Children at risk can make greatest gains • Elaborated words in storybook telling (Justice, Meier, & Walpole, 2005) • Explicitly taught words in storybook telling (Coyne, Simmons, Kame’enui, & Stoolmiller, 2004)

10. What about non-native speakers? • Currently NO published research!! • Looking specifically at storybook exposure and vocabulary gains • Exception: • Recent dissertation by Collins (2005)

11. Collins 2005 • Portuguese-English preschoolers • Heard 8 books; three times • Experimental • Rich explanation • Discussion questions • Control

12. Collins 2005 • Results • Target vocabulary accounted by: • Treatment • Home reading practices • L2 receptive skill • Reading comprehension

13. Present pilot study • Impetus • Lack of research • Role of incidental learning? • Possibility of more immediate effects? • Role of type of text? • Look at use of a word as well as acquisition

14. Present pilot study • Design • Independent variable • Text format • Prose • Rhyme • Word familiarity • Familiar • Completely novel

15. Present pilot study • Materials • Two storybooks • One featuring a “moon” • One featuring a “seal” • Invented text • Two versions for each storybook • Prose • Rhyme • Picture arrays

16. Present pilot study • Materials • Invented text • Controlled for • Number of occurrences of target word (n = 4) • Overall number of phrases • Number of phrases in between mention of target word

17. Present pilot study • Materials • Invented text • Rhyme • Target always at end of phrase • Always rhymes with adjacent phrase • Prose • Target never at end of phrase • No rhyming

18. Present pilot study • Materials • Example of rhyme Look Look!// In the water a seal! He swims and swims// with so much zeal! From the crowd// he attracts much appeal. He’s so smart//look at what he can do He’ll jump through hoops// and play with a ball too Throw him some fish/he’ll jump through one hoop, maybe two!

19. Present pilot study • Materials • Example of prose At the zoo Marco saw a seal performing amazing tricks in the water. He balanced on a big beach ball and the trainer gave him a fish. He clapped his big fins together and made loud squeal noises. He also wobbled from side to side as he danced around. Marco laughed out loud when he saw him balance a ball on his nose. Not only could he balance the ball, he could toss it to the trainer!

20. Present pilot study • Materials • Picture arrays • Picture of target word • Picture of word from text, non-target, not repeated • Pictures of 4 other, non-presented words

21. Example picture arrays

22. Present pilot study • Participants • Spanish-English preschoolers (N=43) • Age range: 3 ½ - 5 years of age • All with Spanish spoken in the home • 2 participants with low-no proficiency in English (not included in analyses)

23. Present pilot study • Procedure • Two sessions (one month apart) • 1st: Target word = Moon • 2nd: Target word = Seal

24. Present pilot study • Session procedure • (1) Storybook read by experimenter • (2) Individual testing sessions • Research assistant meets with one child at a time • Presents child with an array of pictures • “What do you see here?” • Responses audio recorded and written down on paper

25. Present pilot study • Results: Session 1 (Moon) • Data from 18 students (7 prose; 11 rhyme) • Response scoring • Range 9- 1 • 9 : says word first and repeats it • 8: says word first • 7: says word second • Etc…

26. Session 1 results

27. Session 2 • Data from 18 students (13 prose; 17 rhyme)

28. Session 2 results

29. Discussion • Familiar words • Rhyme boosts spontaneous usage • Unfamiliar words • May benefit more from prose • Provides more explicit description of meaning • Need more repetitions