A vocabulary intervention during shared storybook reading was implemented with 22 Spanish-English bilingual children. One intervention consisted of English expansions of vocabulary words and the other of English-supplemented-with-Spanish instruction. Participants between the ages of 4 and 6 received both interventions during a four-week summer program. It was hypothesized that the intervention incorporating Spanish would produce greater learning in three areas: naming, receptive knowledge, and expressive definitions. It also was hypothesized that the children's initial language proficiency in each language would affect their learning from Spanish vocabulary expansions. Results revealed significant improvement in all three areas. The Spanish vocabulary expansions condition produced the greatest gains in expressive definitions. Also, the children's initial language proficiency in Spanish and English was found to affect the children's possible gains from the intervention. The thirteen participants with limited skills in both languages showed significantly less vocabulary growth than the participants who had strong skills in Spanish. Although both languages of intervention were beneficial, there were additional benefits to using Spanish expansions in the vocabulary instruction. Findings support previous literature that suggests shared reading is a useful tool to enhance word learning. This is especially true for bilingual children when supporting and strengthening a child's first language and facilitating second-language acquisition. Future research should explore additional ways of enhancing the vocabulary growth of children with limited skills in both languages. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Communication Disorders in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 20007. / April 24, 2007. / Bilingual Vocabulary Acquisition, Preschool, Spanish-English Bilinguals / Includes bibliographical references. / Carla Wood Jackson, Professor Directing Thesis; Howard Goldstein, Committee Member; Shurita Thomas-Tate, Committee Member; Christopher Lonigan, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_175587 |
| Contributors | Lugo-Neris, Mirza J. (authoraut), Jackson, Carla Wood (professor directing thesis), Goldstein, Howard (committee member), Thomas-Tate, Shurita (committee member), Lonigan, Christopher (committee member), School of Communication (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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