Differences in the Nature of Explicit Vocabulary Instruction by Instructional Context in Chilean Kindergartens

• In Event: Access to Rigorous Literacy Instruction in Early Childhood Education: Unpacking Instructional Moves

Abstract

Vocabulary plays a central role in children’s ability to comprehend written text (National Reading Panel, 2000; Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998), yet differences in vocabulary surface around two years of age and only widen over childhood (Hart & Risley, 1995). Center-based early childhood education (ECE) could mitigate such early disparities worldwide (UNESCO, 2007), if high quality language interactions can be maintained (Britto, Yoshikawa & Boller, 2011). Evidence from the U.S. and Europe suggests that explicit vocabulary instruction can support vocabulary growth for a variety of learners (Coyne, McCoach & Kapp, 2007; Justice, Meier & Walpole, 2005). Yet questions remain about the type of information that should be provided about word meanings; both declarative information about words, such as provisions of definitions and examples of usage, and more extensive conceptual information about word meanings have been shown to be effective (Beck & McKeown, 2007; Neuman, Newman & Dwyer, 2011; Penno, Wilkinson & Moore, 2002; Silverman, 2007; Wasik & Hindman, 2012). Additionally, book readings are most frequently the target of explicit vocabulary instruction interventions, yet subjects like science and mathematics also provide exposure to many new words, as well as to old words with new, subject-specific meanings (Peterson & French, 2008; Sarama, Lange, Clements & Wolfe, 2012). There has been limited work focused on understanding the nature of explicit vocabulary instruction provided in ECE classrooms across different types of instructional activities either in the U.S. or in Latin American countries.

This study addresses this gap by identifying patterns of language interactions in Kindergarten classroom videotapes (N=29 schools, 46 classrooms) from Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), a cluster-randomized trial of a teacher training program in Chile during the second year of training. These schools serve high need children in a country where there has been relatively little educational attention to language development in early childhood (Strasser & Lisi, 2009). The following questions are considered: 1) What is the nature of UBC teachers’ explicit vocabulary instruction practices? 2) How do these practices vary by type of instruction?

A videotape of a full day of classroom instruction was taken at the end of the year in each classroom. All whole class instructional episodes were transcribed by native Chilean Spanish speakers and coded by the first author, yielding on average an hour of instruction per class. Nine variables describing the amount and nature of explicit vocabulary instruction have been created (see Table 1). Descriptive results show great variability from classroom to classroom in the amount of explicit vocabulary instruction and differences by instructional context, with more declarative word information provided during literacy activities and more conceptual information available during other types of instruction (Table 2). Since other analyses have demonstrated that the provision of conceptual information was most strongly related to children’s vocabulary growth in these classrooms and that the coaching reduced the time spent in concept-focused instruction, implications of these results will be discussed (Authors, 2016a; Authors, 2016b).

Authors

• Jocelyn B. Bowne, Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University

• Catherine E. Snow, Harvard University