Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2010 Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness in 3- to 4-Year-Old Children: Effects of a Training Program Iuliana Elena Baciu Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Child Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Baciu, Iuliana Elena, "Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness in 3- to 4-Year-Old Children: Effects of a Training Program" (2010). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1108. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1108 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada Training vocabulary in 3 to 4 year old children: Vocabulary effects 1 Running Head: VOCABULARY AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS IN 3 TO 4 YEAR OLD CHILDREN: EFFECTS OF A TRAINING PROGRAM Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness in 3- to 4-Year-Old Children: Effects of a Training Program Iuliana Elena Baciu B A, University of Bucharest, Romania 1997 MA, Wilfrid Laurier University 2005 DISSERTATION Submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Developmental Psychology Wilfrid Laurier University 2010 © Iuliana Elena Baciu 2010 Training vocabulary in at-risk preschoolers: PPVT effects i Abstract The impact of a preschool training program that combined a vocabulary instruction strategy with phonological awareness activities and instruction in the alphabetic principle, as well as incidental teaching of basic vocabulary items was evaluated using a pretest-posttest design with a control group. This language and literacy (LL) training targeted three to four year-old English as a second language (L2) learners and monolingual (LI) English speakers (n = 63) and was conducted twice a week for two hours, for a total of 24 weeks. Both language groups contained a low socioeconomic status (SES) and a middle SES groups. The children in the control group attended a math intervention (n= 17) or general Early Years programs (n = 6). The results of analyses, controlling for non-verbal reasoning, show that children in the LL training group significantly outperformed the children in the control group on performance on the posttest measures of standardized vocabulary (PPVT-III; Dunn & Dunn, 1997) and letter- sound identification. It is remarkable that at posttest the English L2 children had scores similar to the range of English LI children at pretest. That is, with this LL training program, at posttest the English L2 children reached the pretest levels of English LI children. These are the levels of vocabulary knowledge that native speakers will typically have when they start kindergarten. One of the implications of this research is that only an early provision of a vocabulary training program in which conceptual linkages between words are emphasized in a flexible and rich manner can lead to meaningful changes in vocabulary development. In contrast, teaching words does not meaningfully increase general vocabulary knowledge, a result that is supported by a plethora of research to date. Training vocabulary in at-risk preschoolers: PPVT effects ii Special thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Alexandra Gottardo, for her continued guidance, support and friendship for this research to come to life. Special thanks to the committee members, Dr. Kim Roberts and Dr. Joanne Lee, for their very useful remarks throughout this research. Special thanks to Dr. Eileen Wood, for her continued support throughout my doctoral studies, as well as to the Graduate Studies and Psychology Departments at Wilfrid Laurier. I would also like to thank the children in the study and their families for their commitment to it. Without you, this research would not exist. I want to acknowledge the effort of those who trained and worked with the children: Adrian Pasquarella, Amy Grant, Courtney Patterson, Leanne Best. I also extend my thanks to the administration and staff of the Popcorn House Community Centre, Kingsdale Community Centre, Cambridge Ontario Early Years Centres and Strong Start, especially to Chris Hayhoe, Stephen Lauer and Linda Hannaford from the Popcorn House Community Centre, and to Inge Ford, Lynda Silvester, Machelle Dennison and Anbrin Naqui from Strong Start. Last, but not the least, I would like to thank my friends and the community at the Christ the Saviour Antiochian Orthodox Church, and especially Rev. Christopher Rigden- Briscall, Maugosata and Mihau Szester, Monica Popovici, and Lili Vrentzos, for their love and support. To my daughter, Maria-Gabriela Faroga, for her love and patience during these years, a special thank you. I want to thank my mother and my family for teaching me to persevere in fulfilling my dreams. Training vocabulary in at-risk preschoolers: PPVT effects iii Table of Contents page 1. Abstract i 2. Acknowledgments ii 3. Table of contents iii 4. Introduction 2 5. Literature review 10 Linguistic and cognitive processes related to literacy development 10 Literacy development and definitions 10 Vocabulary development in monolingual children 12 Vocabulary knowledge and socio-economic status (SES) 15 Vocabulary development in bilingual children 17 Vocabulary interventions with older school-aged children 19 Vocabulary interventions with younger school-aged children 23 Conceptual approaches to vocabulary knowledge 28 The relation between SES and vocabulary knowledge 33 Phonological processing skills 34 Phonological awareness 35 Contextual and environmental factors related to reading development 43 6. Method 50 Participants 50 Measures 54 Parent-Home Questionnaire 54 Training vocabulary in at-risk preschoolers: PPVT effects iv Oral language measures 55 Reading measures 56 Phonological processing measures 56 Verbal memory measures 58 Letter names and letter-sounds 59 Non-verbal reasoning 59 Procedure 60 Training program - Language and Literacy 60 Control group - training math 64 7. Results 64 Examination of mean tables 65 Differences between the control group and the training group 66 Differences between the two language status groups 66 Differences between the two SES groups 67 The multivariate analysis of variance 76 The MANCOVA for the pretest scores 77 The MANCOVA for the posttest scores 78 The MANCOVA for the growth scores between pretest and posttest 79 Regression and factor analyses 85 Factor analysis, regression, and hierarchical regression analyses predicting longitudinal general vocabulary (PPVT-III) for the English LI group 86 Factor analyses, regression and hierarchical regression analyses predicting longitudinal general vocabulary (PPVT-III) for the English L2 group 88 Training vocabulary in at-risk preschoolers: PPVT effects v Hierarchical regression analyses predicting concurrent general vocabulary (PPVT-III) for the English LI group 94 Hierarchical regression analyses predicting concurrent general vocabulary (PPVT-III) for the English L2 group 94 Hierarchical regression analyses predicting concurrent PA for the English LI group 97 Hierarchical regression analyses predicting concurrent PA for the English L2 group 97 Hierarchical regression analyses predicting longitudinal PA for the English LI group 98 Hierarchical regression analyses predicting longitudinal PA for the English L2 group 99 Hierarchical regression analysis predicting word reading (Dolch) for the English LI group 102 Hierarchical regression