Teaching for breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge: Learning from explicit and implicit instruction and the storybook texts

Publication date: 2nd Quarter 2019Source: Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Volume 47Author(s): David K. Dickinson, Kimberly T. Nesbitt, Molly F. Collins, Elizabeth B. Hadley, Katherine Newman, Bretta L. Rivera, Hande Ilgez, Ageliki Nicolopoulou, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-PasekAbstractThis paper reports results from two studies conducted to examine word learning among preschool children in group book reading while we developed a scalable method of teaching words during book reading. We sought to identify factors that fostered both depth and breadth of learning by varying the type of information children heard about words while holding exposures constant. We also asked whether prior word knowledge affects children’s learning across our different instructional approaches. In Study 1 we evaluated pre-post gains from two types of explicit instruction (Didactic and Conceptual), an implicit instructional approach (Review), and repeated Exposure. For all three instructed conditions growth in receptive knowledge (our measure of breadth) was statistically equivalent when compared to control (d = 0.43) and exposure words (d = 0.41). In Study 2, words were taught using an augmented explicit approach and through repeated exposure. Moderate and statistically significant growth in receptive knowledge was found when comparing instructed to control words (d = 0.48) and large effects were found with an expressive task measure of depth of knowledge (d = 1.19)....
Source: Early Childhood Research Quarterly - Category: Child Development Source Type: research