Fostering Child Engagement to Promote Word Learning in Guided Play

• In Event: Enhancing Language Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Multiple and diverse encounters with words deepen lexical quality (McKeown & Beck, 2014). However, the majority of word acquisition research examines the teacher’s role in teaching about words; this study focuses on lexical encounters from the child’s perspective.
We examined child and teacher use of taught words during a play activity that extended initial instruction delivered in book readings. Four preschool teachers worked with 51 children. Following each of four book readings, teachers lead play sessions with three or four children using book-related props as they sought to teach four target words. Vocabulary knowledge was assessed before and after the intervention.
We coded three types of child word use: independent use, grammatically flexible use, and responses to teacher questions. Teacher use was coded as definition, models of use, grammatical flexibility, or questions. Child and teacher utterances were also coded for references to information about word meaning (e.g., synonym, gesture, use of prop).
Predictor variables were entered into multilevel models with covariates (PPVT baseline score, age, and pretest score). Associations were tested among each predictor and the breadth and depth measure outcomes, accounting for the nesting of children in playgroups. Due to small sample size we used standardized mean difference effect sizes to assess the magnitude of effects (Farran, Meador, Christopher, Nesbitt, & Bilbrey, 2017).
The largest effect size was child use of words that conveyed semantic information (d = 0.73, breadth; d = 0.70, depth). Teacher total use of words was negatively associated with learning gains (d = t-0.72, breadth). These findings indicate that guided play nurtures development through engaging children as active participants in the learning process (Chi, 2009) and that a balance between teacher and child talk is beneficial (Authors, 2011; Farran et al., 2017).

Authors

• Katherine M Newman, Vanderbilt University

• David K. Dickinson, Vanderbilt University