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English fluency is a strong predictor of later academic success in the U.S. (Espinosa, 2007) In fact, a child who enters kindergarten with weak English language skills is most at risk for academic failure and dropping out of school; while a child with strong home language (L1) skills is more likely to attain fluency in English (Espinosa, 2007). A large portion of young English learners are acquiring their first and second languages at the same time. It is important to young dual language learners (DLL) that research reveals the best ways to provide effective instruction which helps maintain the home language and supports acquisition of English. This study examined the effects of an early reading intervention on preschool-age DLL children’s early literacy skills. Phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge have been identified as skills that can transfer from L1 to English (L2) to enhance the acquisition of the second language among young children (Dickinson, 2004; Durgunoglu, Nagy, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993). There is evidence of the effectiveness of shared-reading interventions to increase children’s oral language skills across languages, race/ethnicity, and SES. The current study embedded instruction in phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge in a group of interactive reading strategies known as Dialogic Reading (DR). The intervention was delivered in the children’s home language, Spanish. Children’s growth in emergent literacy skills in Spanish and in English was monitored using a single subject with multiple baselines across subjects design. Visual analysis of single subject graphs indicated gains across all participants. In addition, paired-samples t-tests showed significant growth between pre- and post-tests in both English and Spanish of participating children. The findings have implications for research, policy, professional practice, and home literacy practices.

Researchers have long argued the importance of shared book reading and its potential impact on future reading growth. With the increasing popularity of e-books and the introduction of interactive iPad books, more and more parents are sharing books with their children in digital format. This may have a direct impact on the nature of the interactions that occur during young children's early book sharing experiences. This multiple-case study examined the nature of the interactions between six mother-child dyads as they read a story on an iPad compared with the interactions that happened during a traditional book reading. A coding system was developed to categorize behaviors during the reading sessions. The categories included (a) meaning talk, (b) text and print talk, (c) technology talk, and (d) the nature of the affective climate.The results of this study indicate that mother-child traditional read-alouds and digital iPad read-alouds are different experiences. During digital readings there was an increase in the number of vocabulary-related (a subcategory of meaning) interactions but a decrease in the number of interactions related to text and print. The results also showed that as the dyad shared a digital storybook, they engaged in many interactions about the technological elements of the iPad texts, which may be important to the development of digital literacies in young children. The findings also indicate that a child is more engaged with digital texts than with traditional texts, which is important because engagement is an essential component in literacy development. However, sometimes the child's increased engagement with the digital texts resulted in both members of the dyad being less sensitive to the other. Digital storybook reading is a relatively new experience for many parents and thus, they may not know how to interact with their children in ways that promote the development of traditional and digital literacies.

Children with limited speech using graphic symbols for communication often express themselves predominantly through single symbols rather than symbol combinations. This study aimed to investigate the effect of an intervention strategy that was incorporated into shared storybook reading on the production of graphic symbol combinations. Three children between the ages of 7;9 (years;months) and 10;8 with limited speech and physical impairments participated in the study. A multiple probe design across behaviours (3 different types of semantic symbol combinations) was used, replicated across the 3 participants. Intervention entailed prompting the production of strategic symbol combinations (generated from a matrix) during shared storybook reading by using a prompting hierarchy. The participants’ production of combinations targeted during intervention as well as their ability to generalize to nontarget combinations from the matrix was monitored using a probe test (picture description task). All 3 participants showed some gains in acquiring the combinations and generalizing to nontarget combinations, as measured by the probe test. While 1 participant showed convincing effects, the other 2 showed lower effects. Lower effects may be partly ascribed to participant characteristics as well as to the discrepancies between the intervention and probe contexts. All participants performed better within the shared storybook reading context. Results suggest that the production of symbol combinations can be facilitated during shared storybook reading and that the matrix strategy promotes generalization to untrained semantic combinations. However, participant gains may not reflect immediately in formal testing situations. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

字彙學習是語文能力重要的一環，許多教學也都是以提升孩童單字量之目的設計的，其中，故事閱讀活動就被推崇為是能以提供豐富情境的方式來增進孩童語文能力的有效策略。本研究主旨在探討繪本共讀對EFL國小學童字彙學習的影響，主要的研究方向有：(1) 圖文標指與引導問答教學對學童運用繪本學習字彙的影響; (2)不同教學引導方式對學生字彙保留量的影響; (3)不同教學引導方式對不同程度學生所產生的影響。 受試者為五十四位台北縣五年級國小學童，其字彙測驗成績則為資料分析來源。本研究主要發現有下列幾點。第一，圖文標指和引導問答教學對國小學童運用繪本學習字彙皆有助益。第二，圖文標指和引導問答教學對學童字彙保留量都有正面的影響。第三，英語學習高成就學生在運用繪本學習字彙上收穫比低成就學生多，其中，圖文標指教學對高成就以及低成就學生皆有助益；此外，總括來說，引導問答教學對高成就學生的字彙學習幫助最大。 最後，本文提供了教學者以及日後研究者相關建議，並期盼研究結果能帶給台灣英語老師一些字彙教學上的參考。 / Vocabulary plays an important role in children’s emergent literacy. Many instructions were developed to build children’s word knowledge. Among them, storybook reading is promoted to be an effective strategy that enhances children’s literacy by providing rich contexts. The purpose of the present study aims to examine the effects of the techniques of labeling (L) and labeling plus questioning (L+Q) for vocabulary teaching with storybook reading in EFL elementary school. The study is mainly concerned with three aspects: (1) the effects of L and L+Q on student’s vocabulary learning during shared storybook reading; (2) student’s retention of learned vocabulary affected by the two techniques; (3) the influence of the two techniques on students with diverse English proficiency. Participants were 54 fifth-grade elementary school students in Taipei County, and the data analysis was based on their performance of the Picture Vocabulary Test (PVT). The findings of the study are as follows. First, L and L+Q techniques were both beneficial for student’s receptive vocabulary learning during shared storybook reading. Second, both L and L+Q techniques were effective in retaining student’s word knowledge. Third, overall performance of students with high English proficiency (HEP) in PVT improved more significantly than that of students with low English proficiency (LEP). Besides, L technique was helpful for HEP and LEP’s receptive vocabulary learning, but not for HEP’s word retention. Moreover, HEP were most influenced by L+Q technique in vocabulary learning during shared storybook reading. Based on the findings of the present study, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future study were provided at the end of the thesis.