Complex Preschool Teacher-Child Talk, Types of Activity Settings, and Child Outcomes

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Research suggests that children who attend early childhood classrooms with more frequent complex teacher talk show larger gains in language and literacy skills (e.g., Justice et al., 2018). Yet, the extent to which different types of the grouping of children during instruction may be especially important for promoting language and literacy development needs further attention (Dickinson et al., 2014). In particular, we were interested in three components of complex conversations that promote language and literacy skills: elaboration and extension (Dickinson & Porche, 2011), decontextualized talk (Rowe, 2013) and back-and-forth conversation (Uccelli et al., 2018). Thus, the following research questions will be addressed: 1) Does teachers’ use of complex conversations vary across activity settings (large-group small-group, free-play); and 2) Do children show larger gains in language and literacy development, when teachers engage in more complex conversations in general and within each type of activity setting?

This longitudinal study involved randomly selecting and recruiting 63 pre-kindergarten classrooms in six rural counties in North Carolina and recruiting 362 children in those classrooms (36% Spanish-English Dual Language Learners). Trained data collectors administered individual assessments to children in the fall and spring on receptive (Picture Vocabulary; Woodcock et al., 2001) and expressive language (English and bilingual Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test; Brownell, 2000), decoding (Letter-Word Identification, Woodcock et al., 2001), and initial-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness (DIBELS First Sound Fluency and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency; Good et al., 2011). Trained observers conducted winter classroom observations of target child’s teacher-child language interactions, domain-specific learning activities, and activity settings using the Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn; Sprachman et al., 2010). LISn involved observing a given child for five minutes in 30-second cycles, coding each type of language interaction. At the end of the 5-minute snapshot, the observer recorded the learning activities and activity settings in which the target child engaged. The observer then observed 2-5 additional children and repeated these snapshots for a total of 120 min (20-30 min per child). See Table 1 for descriptive statistics. Overall, LISn was collected on 304 children, with those children not differing from the overall sample on variables listed in Table 1.

Two sets of multi-level analyses examined (1) children’s exposure to complex teacher talk overall and within different activity settings as a function of children’s demographic and baseline language skills and classroom characteristics and (2) gains in child outcomes in relation to that exposure. Analyses accounted for nesting of children in classrooms. The first set of analyses indicated that exposure to complex conversations in small-group activity was significantly lower for dual language learners (B=-.16, se=.06); and in free-play was significantly lower for Black children (B=-.15, se=.07). High proportion of complex conversations in large-group activity were related to larger gains in receptive vocabulary, sound fluency, and phoneme segmentation. Quadratic associations emerged for relating large group complex conversation to gains in sound-related skills and sound fluency, suggesting that the association was stronger at higher than lower levels of these conversations (see Table 2). Potential implications of these findings for research and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Wonkyung Jang, The University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Kylie Garber, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tiffany Jamie Foster, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret Burchinal, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary Bratsch-Hines, University of Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ximena Franco-Jenkins, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author