Mandarin-Speaking Children's Expressive Vocabulary and Narrative Competence in Dialogic Reading: Growth Curve Analyses

• In Event: Roundtable 3 (Chinese Language and Literacy Learning)

Abstract

This research is part of a larger study and aims to examine the growth trajectories of Mandarin-speaking children’s expressive vocabulary and narrative competence over a 12-week home-based dialogic reading program. Eighty-one Mandarin-speaking kindergartners were pretested on the two dependent variables and then assigned to one of two conditions—dialogic reading or customary reading. Parents of the dialogic reading group participated in three dialogic reading workshops and implemented at least 48 shared reading sessions at home with their children during the intervention. Expressive vocabulary and narrative competence was retested immediately after the intervention and then measured again four months later. HLM analyses demonstrated that there was no significant group difference in the growth curves of the two variables.

Authors

• Ling Li, Memorial University of Newfoundland

• Antoinette Rachael Doyle, Memorial University