University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Summer 8-4-2011 Exploring Storybook Illustrations in Learning Word Meanings Eleomarques Ferreira Rocha University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons Recommended Citation Rocha, Eleomarques Ferreira, "Exploring Storybook Illustrations in Learning Word Meanings" (2011). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 351. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/351 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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Exploring Storybook Illustrations in Learning Word Meanings A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction Language and Literacy Education by Eleomarques Ferreira Rocha B.A. Universidade Federal da Bahia, 1998 M.A. University of New Orleans, 2004 August, 2011 © 2011, Eleomarques Ferreira Rocha ii Acknowledgments Many were the stories that helped me to develop this project; I wish to acknowledge at least some of the contributions that had an impact on my understanding of the potential influences of storybook illustrations on word learning. First, I would like to thank my parents for all the stories they told me, and their effort in raising nine children, teaching us the value of education. I am privileged to reach the first doctoral degree of my family; therefore, I must show my gratitude to a beautiful flower, Florisbela, and a mighty lion, Leonel. My gratitude also goes to my former supervisors from Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil, Professor Maria del Rosário Albán and late Dr. Doralice Alcoforado, in whose memory I dedicate this dissertation. From Rosário and Dora, I learned to appreciate Brazilian oral history and storytelling. Their love of narratives and appreciation for linguistic diversity, and their professionalism and scholarship will always be an inspiration for me. My journey with stories followed me through the doctoral studies. When I began the program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of New Orleans in 2007, I had the joy of working in a children's literature library under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Austin, who introduced me to multicultural and immigrant literature. I have always admired her care and passion for children's books, and I am very thankful for the many lessons I have learned from her. It was in her class that I discovered Angelina's Island (Winter, 2007), a book that helped me understand the homesickness that children and adults experience when leaving their homeland to seek a new life in a new land, in this case America. Dr. Austin witnessed my journey as an international student, and she was always very supportive. She also shared many books that inspired my research, especially Grandfather's Journey (Say, 1993), and kindly allowed me to use the children's literature library that she directs. I am both grateful and iii honored to have had her guidance and support. After my work with the children's literature library, I began assisting Dr. April Bedford and had the opportunity to learn about her research on children's literature. She introduced me to The Arrival (Tan, 2007) and many other children's books that have deepened my multicultural experience. Again, a new world of possibility opened not only in children's literature but also in narrative inquiry. She taught me about ethnography making a powerful connection between teachers’ lives, reading, and professional development. I was strongly inspired by her ideas about picture books, not to mention that she also strongly supported my study. I am especially thankful to the projects she invited me to join, including writing reviews of children's books (e.g. Bedford, 2010, 2011). I also am very grateful for the many children's books she personally donated to this study and for endorsing the donation of ten copies of The Lotus Seed through the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. In addition to my background in narrative inquiry, I also learned in the doctoral program that numerical data have an important role in educational research. Dr. Amy Claire Thoreson has been influential in my quantitative research education. Because I have no math background, I struggled with some statistical concepts and procedures. As I tried to make sense of the data, she would listen patiently to my concerns and then suggest the course of action that I was able to understand and handle independently. I came to admire her choice of words, her character, and her positive attitude toward life. In her seminars and one-to-one conferences, she made the language of statistics comprehensible to me. I am very thankful for her teaching and support. I am also very thankful to Dr. Georgette Ioup. For my Master's thesis in English linguistics (Rocha, 2004), which she directed, we had worked together with the acquisition of the English present perfect. She taught me, among other things, principles of second language iv acquisition. In her class, well-known researchers such as Stephen Krashen became familiar to me. Her linguistics instruction was filled with personal anecdotes, which helped me gain deeper and deeper knowledge of topics that were very complex even for language experts. I prize our friendship and our shared interest in language education, and I am grateful to all her comments and suggestions throughout my doctoral studies. In addition, I am particularly grateful for her willingness to join the doctoral committee during her retirement from the University. Also influential in my linguistics as well as language and literacy education was my major professor, Dr. John Barnitz. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Barnitz for directing the dissertation process with such grace. He told me, "work as fast as you can, but also enjoy the day." His encouraging and thought-provoking feedback pushed me into considering the research from multiple academic perspectives. From his teachings on linguistics and reading theory and his most recent auto-ethnographic research on the roles of creative arts, media and sports in urban literacy development, I learned how to integrate scholarship with my personal life. On the several occasions that we discussed my progress in the doctoral program, Dr. Barnitz walked with me through major studies in reading research, sharing his own experience and teaching me how to explore my questions with an open mind. I particularly enjoyed attending the recent American Educational Research Association (AERA, 2011) conference with him as he kindly introduced me to members of the educational research community. Muito obrigado, Dr. Barnitz. In addition to the committee members and other people who influenced my work, many others I cannot forget. Without them, this study would not have been possible. I am grateful to the director Dana Criswell and academic coordinator Doris Cavey, who were my contacts in the English as a second language program selected for the study. I would like to express my v heartfelt appreciation for all the students and volunteers who participated in the pilot study and main study, and to the teachers and staff members who facilitated my contact with the learners. Particularly, I would like to thank Lindsey (pseudonym) for all her insights into the Vietnamese culture and her incredible passion for reading and learning English. She inspired me to work with The Lotus Seed (Garland, 1993) and allowed me to witness her academic progress and her adaptation to the American culture. When I gave her a book as a modest wedding gift, she promised me, "I will show my baby that book." I am confident that she will spread the seeds of reading and learning in her community. Many people also helped me to collect and analyze the data. Thank you, Sandy Vandercook, for your support with the testing and for your warm encouragement. I also am thankful to many other doctoral students, especially Franz Reneau, for supportive feedback and encouragement. In addition, I cannot forget to mention the heartwarming blessings of the faculty and staff at the College of Education and Human Development, especially at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and the assistance of the staff at Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans. I am immensely grateful to the people who translated the test responses, thus playing a key role in the data interpretation. Thank you so much for your participation and insightful comments, Heesook Lee, Samar Sarmini, Bora Oskan, Ksenia Kirillova, Long Hoang Van, Noriko Ito, Danny Chiang, Sunil Kumar, Aurelie Lebec, and Professor Manuel Garcia-Castellon. In addition, I would like to thank Kris Pottharst and Professor Abram Himelstein, among others already mentioned, for their direct support with the vocabulary assessment. I am especially thankful to Kris for keeping me informed about the Early Reading First project, which she vi manages, and for allowing me to get involved in activities related to teaching and assessing vocabulary. I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishing company, whose permission to use and photocopy The Lotus Seed for research purposes made it possible for me to bring such a beautiful story to the readers who participated in the study.