Relation Between Language Experiences in Preschool Classrooms and Children’S Kindergarten and Fourth-Grade Language and Reading Abilities
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Child Development, May ⁄ June 2011, Volume 82, Number 3, Pages 870–886 Relation Between Language Experiences in Preschool Classrooms and Children’s Kindergarten and Fourth-Grade Language and Reading Abilities David K. Dickinson Michelle V. Porche Vanderbilt University Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College Indirect effects of preschool classroom indexes of teacher talk were tested on fourth-grade outcomes for 57 students from low-income families in a longitudinal study of classroom and home influences on reading. Detailed observations and audiotaped teacher and child language data were coded to measure content and quantity of verbal interactions in preschool classrooms. Preschool teachers’ use of sophisticated vocabulary during free play predicted fourth-grade reading comprehension and word recognition (mean age = 9; 7), with effects mediated by kindergarten child language measures (mean age = 5; 6). In large group preschool set- tings, teachers’ attention-getting utterances were directly related to later comprehension. Preschool teachers’ correcting utterances and analytic talk about books, and early support in the home for literacy predicted fourth-grade vocabulary, as mediated by kindergarten receptive vocabulary. Language ability is widely recognized as central to in improved language and reading and that exami- reading comprehension. High-quality preschool nation of direct and indirect effects will reveal last- experiences are known to foster language and early ing effects of preschool classroom experiences on reading, and early reading skill heavily determines fourth-grade language and reading competencies. children’s later success. But relatively little is We address these hypotheses using new research known about the specific features of preschool tools that allow us to analyze existing data from a classrooms that contribute to language acquisition. study that examined home and classroom contribu- This article reports results of a longitudinal study tions to language and literacy development of chil- that was designed to identify features of teacher– dren from low-income families (Dickinson & child interactions in preschool that relate to the Tabors, 2001; Snow & Dickinson, 1991). Using mul- language and literacy development of children from tiple simultaneous mediation analyses (Preacher & low-income families. It tests the hypothesis that the Hayes, 2008), we examine direct and indirect asso- dynamics of teacher support for language in the ciations between variables describing children’s classroom are similar to those found in homes; preschool classroom experiences and language and therefore, use of strategies found to be useful in reading skills in kindergarten and fourth grade, homes will be associated with enhanced language taking into account home and child variables. learning in classrooms. Furthermore, we hypothe- size that support for language in preschool results Language and Reading Comprehension Central to the design of this study was the The Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Develop- hypothesis that the support that children receive ment, from which these data come, was supported by grants to Catherine Snow and the first author from the Ford Foundation, for language in the preschool years has lasting the Spencer Foundation, the Agency for Children and Families, effects on later reading comprehension (Snow & Grant 90CD0827, and the W.T. Grant Foundation. The authors Dickinson, 1991). Considerable evidence now bol- are grateful to all for their support; to the families, teachers, and children for their assistance; and to all those who helped on this sters this assumption. project, most noteworthy being Catherine Snow, Patton Tabors, Longitudinal studies. Language plays a pivotal Stephanie Ross Harris, Miriam Smith, Linda Cote, Petra Nichol- role in supporting reading development (Dickin- son, and Kevin Roach. An early version of this article was pre- sented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child son, McCabe, Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg, & Development, Atlanta, GA, April 7, 2005. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David K. Dickinson, Vanderbilt University, Department of Ó 2011 The Authors Teaching and Learning Peabody #330230, Appleton Place, Nash- Child Development Ó 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. ville, TN 37203-5721. Electronic mail may be sent to David. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2011/8203-0012 [email protected]. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01576.x Preschool Language Experiences and Later Language and Reading 871 Poe, 2003), and a recent meta-analysis found associ- Studies of online processing reveal that vocabu- ations between early language and reading at the lary enhances comprehension by supporting infer- end of first and second grades (National Early Lit- ential processes that require word-level semantic eracy Panel, 2009). Vocabulary in the primary knowledge (Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2004; Nation, grades is associated with later reading skills Clarke, Marshall, & Durand, 2004). The ability to (Muter, Hulme, Snowling, & Stevenson, 2004; Spira, read words that cannot be decoded easily also has Bracken, & Fischel, 2005), and language in pre- been linked to vocabulary size among 8- and 9- school predicts reading in later elementary to mid- year-old children (Ricketts, Nation, & Bishop, 2007), dle school years (NICHD Early Child Care and vocabulary is an area of significant weakness Research Network, 2005a; Storch & Whitehurst, for poor comprehenders. Ouellette (2006) found 2002; Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994). that among fourth-grade readers, receptive vocabu- Full understanding of the importance of early lary is related to decoding and depth of word language to later reading requires consideration of knowledge relates to comprehension. indirect pathways through which early language fosters later reading. During the preschool years, Language Development language and code-related competencies are corre- lated and mutually facilitative (Dickinson, McCabe, To become proficient readers, children must Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg, et al., 2003; learn tens of thousands of words by middle school NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, (Biemiller, 2006) including many Graeco-Latin 2005b). Indirect effects of language on reading have words with abstract meanings (Corson, 1997). Chil- been demonstrated for phonemic awareness, dren also must acquire complex grammatical struc- because growth in vocabulary has been found to tures, differentiate genres and modalities, and learn result in changes in the mental representation of to use language for metalinguistic and analytic language, which supports improved phonemic purposes (Berman & Nir-Sagiv, 2004; Ravid & awareness (Metsala, 1999). This facilitative effect of Tolchinsky, 2002). language on phonological awareness begins early The role of experience in fostering children’s as indicated by a study of Finnish-speaking chil- acquisition of language is described by the emerg- dren that found that language at ages 1 and 2 con- entist coalition model (ECM; Hirsh-Pasek, Golink- tributes to early reading, with the contribution off, Hennon, & Maguire, 2004). It argues that being mediated through phonological awareness children first attend to salient perceptual features, (Silven, Poskiparta, Niemi, & Voeten, 2007). then use knowledge of the speaker’s focus of atten- Storch and Whitehurst (2002) found that age 4 tion and intentions, and later employ linguistic cues language skills had a large indirect effect on com- (e.g., parts of speech). In preschool classrooms prehension in Grades 3 and 4. Likewise, the ECM predicts that individualized teacher–child NICHD Child Care study (2005b) found indirect conversations would be most conductive to lan- effects of age 3 language on Grade 3 reading that guage learning because all three sets of cues can be were mediated through earlier code-related compe- used optimally. In one-on-one conversations, adults tencies. Thus, converging evidence suggests that adjust the information they provide about words language contributes to reading in Grades 3 and 4, according to form class (Hall, Burns, & Pawluski, especially when measures of extended language are 2003) and their estimation of the likelihood that the included along with vocabulary. child knows a word (Weizman & Snow, 2001). Reading comprehension. Theoretical accounts of Semantically contingent (Nelson, 1989) and respon- reading comprehension stress the importance of sive (Landry, Smith, & Swank, 2006) interactions language skills (Hoover & Gough, 1990; Vellutino, support learning. Thus, language acquisition is fos- Tunmer, Jaccard, & Chen, 2007). Longitudinal evi- tered when adults are tuned in and responsive to dence comes from Catts, Adlof, and Weismer’s what children are saying. (2006) finding that second- to fourth-grade language Adults also support language by remaining on a predicts eighth-grade reading comprehension for topic and encouraging children to elaborate their children with and without specific language impair- ideas (Hoff-Ginsberg, 1991; Nelson, 1989). ment. Similarly, Vellutino et al. (2007) found that Topic elaboration may encourage children to draw semantic knowledge supports spelling, which, in on their grammatical and lexical knowledge to turn predicts decoding. Semantic and syntactic produce more complex structures and create knowledge predict language comprehension, which opportunities for adults to provide tailored sup- is correlated with reading