Vocabulary Development of Young English Language Learners in Preschools and Kindergartens: A Review of Research Erso

1. Vocabulary Development of Young English Language Learners in Preschools and Kindergartens: A Review of Research Ersoy Erdemir University at Buffalo, New York Hi everyone. Okay, so the title of my presentation is �Vocabulary Development of Young Englishh Language Learners in Preschools and Kindergartens: A Review of Research�. Before I move onto my presentation I guess I need to make a short explanation about how I became interested in this topic which is related to my dissertation project. Since I started my doctoral studies in 2008, I have been doing research about young bilingual children�s language development. I am examining how 4 to 6 year old bilingual kids (preschoolers and kindergartners) develop their literacy skills in both languages and I am specifically interested in their vocabulary development. In my doctoral studies in New York, I have been working with a professor from Early Childhood Education and we are doing relevant research in this domain. One of the research projects that I was actively involved was Little Word Wonders study which was a curriculum development project that aimed to enhance young English-native speaking children�s vocabulary knowledge in Head Start classrooms. In that project, the topic of vocabulary and vocabulary-related research really sparked my interest. Also in that project, I got to observe couple of young English Language Learners and I became really curious about their vocabulary development trajectories and I started reading about that. Lastly, I guess I really enjoyed working with young children in that project. So, therefore, I kind channeled my interests into this venue of research from then on. And this is how I became interested in this topic. In this regard, I have been engaged with my dissertation project which is a case study of a 5 year old bilingual preschooler in the United States, who is a native speaker of Turkish but learning English for the first time. Through an ethnographic observational study, I am investigating his vocabulary development experiences in school and at home over the period of one year. In particular, my project aims to reveal the factors that impact the early acquisition of new words in the new language. So, since I have been actively involved in my dissertation project I have done a review of research on this topic which will eventually constitute the literature review and therefore chapter 2 of my dissertation. Today I am going to be presenting you about this review of research. Hi everyone. Okay, so the title of my presentation is �Vocabulary Development of Young Englishh Language Learners in Preschools and Kindergartens: A Review of Research�. Before I move onto my presentation I guess I need to make a short explanation about how I became interested in this topic which is related to my dissertation project. Since I started my doctoral studies in 2008, I have been doing research about young bilingual children�s language development. I am examining how 4 to 6 year old bilingual kids (preschoolers and kindergartners) develop their literacy skills in both languages and I am specifically interested in their vocabulary development. In my doctoral studies in New York, I have been working with a professor from Early Childhood Education and we are doing relevant research in this domain. One of the research projects that I was actively involved was Little Word Wonders study which was a curriculum development project that aimed to enhance young English-native speaking children�s vocabulary knowledge in Head Start classrooms. In that project, the topic of vocabulary and vocabulary-related research really sparked my interest. Also in that project, I got to observe couple of young English Language Learners and I became really curious about their vocabulary development trajectories and I started reading about that. Lastly, I guess I really enjoyed working with young children in that project. So, therefore, I kind channeled my interests into this venue of research from then on. And this is how I became interested in this topic. In this regard, I have been engaged with my dissertation project which is a case study of a 5 year old bilingual preschooler in the United States, who is a native speaker of Turkish but learning English for the first time. Through an ethnographic observational study, I am investigating his vocabulary development experiences in school and at home over the period of one year. In particular, my project aims to reveal the factors that impact the early acquisition of new words in the new language. So, since I have been actively involved in my dissertation project I have done a review of research on this topic which will eventually constitute the literature review and therefore chapter 2 of my dissertation. Today I am going to be presenting you about this review of research.

2. Vocabulary Knowledge Reading comprehension Literacy development Academic achievement   (Dickinson et al., 2003; Snow et al., 2007; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002; Biemiller 2003; Collins, 2010; Hart & Risley, 1995; Silverman, 2007; Walker et al., 1994; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; S�n�chal et al., 1998; Snow et al., 1998; Blachowicz et al., 2006)