ERIC ED603912: Classwide Extensions of Vocabulary Intervention Improve Learning of Academic Vocabulary by Preschoolers

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by  ERIC

JSLHR
Research Article
Classwide Extensions of Vocabulary
Intervention Improve Learning of
Academic Vocabulary by Preschoolers
Yagmur Seven,a Katharine Hull,a Keri Madsen,a John Ferron,a Lindsey Peters-Sanders,a
Xigrid Soto,a Elizabeth S. Kelley,b and Howard Goldsteina
Purpose:Manypreschoolers,especiallythosefromlow- inconsistentorminimaleffectsweredemonstratedby
incomehouseholds,wouldbenefitfrominstructionto 8participants.Multilevelmodelingusedtoevaluatethe
enrichtheirvocabularyandlanguagerepertoires.Yet, effectsstatisticallyrevealedstrongtreatmenteffects.In
explicitinstructionofvocabularyandlanguageskills addition,the10childrenwithabove-averagelanguage
generallyoccursinfrequentlyinearlychildhoodeducation showedimpressivelearningofvocabularywordsfrom
settings.Thisstudyinvestigatedtheadditiveeffectsof bookssubjecttoteacherreviewstrategiesincomparison
teacher-led,classwidereviewstrategiestoapreviously towordsfrombookstowhichtheywerenotexposed.
studiedsmall-groupinterventiononchildren’slearningof Teachersvariedintheextenttowhichtheyimplemented
academicvocabulary. reviewstrategiesintheirclassrooms.Nevertheless,their
Method:Participantsincluded23childrenwithlimitedoral responsestosocialvalidityassessmentswerepositive,
languageskillsatriskforreadingdifficultiesenrolledin supportingthefeasibilityofthisintervention.
single-caseexperimentaldesigns.Effectsoftheclassroom Conclusions:Theadditionofclasswidereviewand
strategiesalonealsowereexaminedin10childrenwith practiceopportunitiesisaneffectivemeansof
above-averagelanguageabilitiesfrom2classrooms. enhancingtheeffectsofaneasy-to-implementsmall-
Results:Visualanalysesoftheadaptedalternating groupinterventionthatteacheschallengingvocabulary
treatmentsdesignsshowedconsistentlearning wordswithinprerecordedstories.Thisapproachholds
improvementswhenvocabularyinstructionwasextended promiseasawaytoshrinkthepervasivewordgapthat
intotheclassroomfor12children,ceilingeffectswere typicallyexistswhenchildreninhigh-povertycommunities
evidentfor3participantsregardlessofcondition,and enterschool.
D
evelopmentoforallanguageiscriticalduring schoolwithlimitedvocabularyarepronetodeveloping
earlychildhood,providingafoundationforliter- literacydifficultiesthat persist throughout school(Hart
acyandnearlyallotheracademicperformance &Risley,1995;Hoff,2013;NationalResearchCouncil,
(Roth, Speece, & Cooper, 2002; Walker, Greenwood, 1998).Unfortunately,childrenexhibitwidedifferencesin
Hart,&Carta,1994). Specifically,orallanguageisknown vocabularyknowledgeuponschoolentry,placingmany
tobeareliablepredictorofreadingproficiencywithaclear children at risk for academic disadvantage (National
relationemergingbetweenearlyvocabularyknowledgeand ResearchCouncil,1998; Walker et al., 1994). Because
laterreadingcomprehension(Kendeou,vandenBroek, the stakes are high for children with limited vocabulary
White,&Lynch,2009;Quinn,Wagner,Petscher,&Lopez, knowledge,effortstoimproveorallanguageandvocabu-
2015;Rothetal.,2002).Theconsequencesofpoorlydevel- laryinat-riskpreschoolchildrenareparamount.
opedvocabularycanbedevastatingaschildrenwhostart Meta-analyseshaveshownthatvocabularyinstruc-
tionforyoungchildren,oftendesignedtobedelivered
within the context of storybook reading, yields mostly
aUniversityofSouthFlorida,Tampa moderateeffects(Marulis&Neuman,2010;Mol,Bus,&
bUniversityofMissouri,Columbia deJong,2009;NationalEarlyLiteracyPanel,2008).Various
CorrespondencetoHowardGoldstein:[email protected] approachesareusedtopromotevocabularyskillswithin
Editor-in-Chief:SeanM.Redmond
Editor:StephenM.Camarata
Disclosure:HowardGoldsteinandElizabethKelleyareauthorsofStoryFriends
ReceivedJuly5,2019
andhaveafinancialinterest,astheyreceiveroyaltiesfromsalesthroughPaul
RevisionreceivedAugust13,2019
BrookesPublishing.Thisinteresthasbeenreviewedbytheiruniversitiesin
AcceptedSeptember9,2019 accordancewiththeirIndividualConflictofInterestpolicies,forthepurposeof
https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-19-00052 maintainingtheobjectivityandintegrityoftheresearch.
JournalofSpeech,Language,andHearingResearch (cid:129) Vol.63 (cid:129) 173–189 (cid:129) January2020 (cid:129) Copyright©2019AmericanSpeech-Language-HearingAssociation 173
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the context of storybooks. For example, interactive afterbeingprovidedwithacurriculumandprofessional
readinganddialogicreading(Lonigan&Whitehurst,1998; development,thereisevidencethattheymaycontinueto
Whitehurstetal.,1988,1994)aredesignedtodeveloporal fallshortinthequalityoftheirinstruction(Justiceetal.,
languageinyoungchildrenthroughtheuseofpurposeful 2008).Thechallengesfacedbypreschoolteachersarefurther
adult–childinteractionsandscaffoldingduringstorybook complicatedbyalackofearlychildhoodcurriculadesigned
reading. Although these approaches to oral language tohelpteachersdeliverinstructionthatfostersvocabulary
developmentarewidelystudiedandcommonlyused,the growthinchildren(Neuman&Dwyer,2009).Thus,there
meta-analysis by Mol et al. (2009) concludes that these isaneedforwell-designed,explicitvocabularycurricula
approaches are only moderately effective when imple- thatarehighlyeffectiveyeteasyforearlychildhoodprofes-
mentedbyresearchersandfarlesseffectivewhenimple- sionalstoimplementwithfidelityinpreschoolsettings.
mentedbytrainedteachers.MarulisandNeumanexamine Story Friends (Goldstein et al., 2016) is a supple-
abroaderspectrumofapproachestovocabularyinstruction mentalcurriculumforpreschoolchildrenthatdeliversex-
intheirmeta-analysis of studies with preschoolers and plicitvocabularyinstructionthroughengaging,prerecorded
kindergarteners.IncontrasttoMoletal.,theseresearchers storybooks,therebymakingthecurriculuminherentlyeasy
specifically examined the effects of explicit instruction to implement with fidelity. Each audio book provides
onvocabulary knowledge. Their findings suggest that embeddedinstructionoffoursophisticatedwordsthatis
approachesthatexplicitlyteachwordsandmeaningsand basedonseveralkeyprinciplesforrobustvocabularyin-
providemultipleexamplesbefore,during,orafterstory- structiondescribedbyBeck,McKeown,andKucan(2002,
bookreadingaremosteffectiveatimprovingwordlearning. 2008,2013).InStoryFriends,thetargetwordsarefirst
Multiplestudiesexaminingtheuseofexplicitvocabulary presentedwithinthenarrationofthestory,andprimary
instructionwithinthecontextofstorybooksfurtherdem- instructionofthetargetwordsimmediatelyfollows.The
onstratethepowerofthisinstructionwhenprovidedto lessons provide a child-friendly definition and multiple
young children across ability levels (Beck & McKeown, examplesusingeachwordinavarietyofcontexts.Chil-
2007; Coyne,McCoach,&Kapp,2007;Goldsteinetal., dren are given multiple opportunities to practice and to
2016;Justice, Meier, & Walpole, 2005; Loftus-Rattan, activelyrespondduringthisinstruction.Inaddition,chil-
Mitchell,&Coyne,2016; Pollard-Durodolaetal.,2011). dren listen to each book three times, thereby receiving
Evensmalldosesofcarefullyplanned,explicitinstruction repeatedexposuretoeachlesson.
havesignificantlyimprovedorallanguageandvocabulary PriorstudieshaveshownStoryFriendstobeeffec-
outcomesforat-riskchildreninpreschoolandkindergarten tiveatincreasingvocabularyknowledgeinpreschoolersat
(Marulis&Neuman,2010). riskforlanguageandliteracydifficulties.Onaverage,chil-
Despitetheevidencesupportingexplicitvocabulary dreninthesestudiesdemonstratelearningof30%–50%of
instruction,thereisgrowingconcernthatpreschoolchildren theinstructedwords(Goldsteinetal.,2016;Greenwood
receive little or no oral language instruction during the etal.,2016;Kelley&Goldstein,2014;Kelley,Goldstein,
schoolday(Greenwoodetal.,2013;NationalEarlyLiteracy Spencer, & Sherman, 2015).Thisproportionofwords
Panel,2008).Observationalstudiesofinstructioninearly learned compares favorably to other studies of explicit
childhoodsettingsrevealthatmanypreschoolteachersfail vocabularyinterventioninwhichchildrenlearnedasmaller
toprovidehigh-qualityorallanguageinstructiontochil- percentageofwordstaught(e.g.,Justiceetal.,2005;Loftus,
dreninneed(Dickinson,2011;Justice,Mashburn,Hamre, Coyne,McCoach,&Zipoli,2010).Consideringtherela-
&Pianta,2008;Wright,2012).Oneapproachtoincreasing tivelylowdoseofinstruction(approximately45minper
thedeliveryofhigh-qualityorallanguageinstructionin week) and the limited language abilities of participants,
earlychildhoodclassroomsinvolveschangingteachers’ StoryFriendsoffersanexampleofaneffectivevocabulary
practices(Cabell,Justice,McGinty,DeCoster,&Forston, interventionthatcanbeimplementedinreal-worldclass-
2015;Cabelletal.,2011;Wasik,Bond,&Hindman,2006; roomssettings.
Wasik&Hindman,2014).Forexample,Wasikandher AlthoughStoryFriendshasconsistentlyresultedin
colleaguestrainedpreschoolteacherstoimprovetheir robusteffectsonwordlearninginyoungchildren,itispos-
vocabularyinstructionandlaterobservedteachersduring siblethattheseeffectshavenotbeenmaximized.Agrow-
read-alouds to code the frequency of their discussions ingbodyofresearchhasexaminedtheeffectsofextending
aboutvocabulary.Theseresearchersfoundthatstudents vocabularyinstructionbeyondstorybookreading.These
ofteacherswhodiscussedwordsmorefrequentlydemon- extensions,whichprovideincreasedopportunitiesforprac-
stratedbettervocabularyoutcomes.Unfortunately,there tice throughout the day, have resulted in significantly
stillaremanypreschoolteacherswhofinditchallenging bettervocabularylearningoutcomes(Beck&McKeown,
to providehigh-quality oral languageinstruction despite 2007;Coyneetal.,2007;Coyne,McCoach,Loftus,Zipoli,
access to training and instructional tools, as has been &Kapp,2009;Loftus-Rattanetal.,2016;McKeown&
observedacrossearlychildhoodsettings(Dickinson,2011; Beck,2014;Wasik&Bond,2001).Inthesestudies,young
Justiceetal.,2008;Pence,Justice,&Wiggins,2008).Fidelity childrenwhoreceivedextendedinstructionandpracticeof
maybelowforteachersimplementinglanguagecurricula vocabularybeyondtheinstructionembeddedduringstory-
inpreschools(e.g.,Dickinson,2011;Penceetal.,2008). bookreadinglearnedmorewordsthanchildrenwhodid
Inaddition,evenwhenteachersareabletoachievefidelity not.Theseresultsarenotsurprisingasextensionactivities
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tendtoprovidemoreexposuretowordsandmeanings, teachersand49parentsofchildrenparticipatingprovided
moreopportunitiestopracticethroughouttheschoolday, informedconsent.Oneconsentedchildleftthepreschool
andmorecontextswithwhichchildrenareabletoconnect beforepretesting.
tonewwords. Parentswhoagreedtoallowtheirchildrentopartici-
Acrossstudies,extensionactivitieshavebeendesigned patewereaskedtocompleteademographicsurveyabout
toincreaseexposuretowordsandmeaningsbyproviding theirfamily’ssocioeconomicstatus,thehomelanguage
(a)repetitionofthesameinstructionalactivitiesacross environment,andthedevelopmentalhistoryoftheirchild.
multipledays(Beck&McKeown,2007;McKeown&Beck, AllchildrenspokeEnglishastheirprimarylanguage,and
2014);(b)follow-upandreviewactivitiesthatoccurafter fourofthestudentsspokeanadditionallanguage(Spanish,
bookreading(e.g.,Coyneetal.,2007);or(c)avarietyof Telugu)intheirhomes.Twenty-twoof23familiescompleted
activitiesthatoccurbefore,during,andafterbookreading thedemographicsurvey.Characteristicsofthechildren
(e.g.,Neuman,Newman,&Dwyer,2011;Wasik&Bond, enrolledinthestudyarepresentedinTable1.Allparents
2001).Most of these extensions have been designed to reported holding a minimumofa high school diploma
provide rich opportunities for children to process the or GeneralEducationalDevelopment,12parentsheld
meaningsofnewwordsmoredeeply(e.g.,Coyneetal., a bachelor’sdegree(sevenmothers,fivefathers),andeight
2007;McKeown&Beck,2014;Neuman et al., 2011). As heldagraduate/professionaldegree(fourmothers,fourfa-
McKeown and Beck explain, cognitive processing that is thers).Householdsocioeconomicstatus(SES)levelswere
deeper than rote memoryorwordassociationsiscritical classifiedintofivesocialstratabasedonHollingshead’s
forcompleteandnuancedwordlearning.Aslearnersre- Four Factor Index of Social Status (Hollingshead,1975),
peatedlyengagewithandintegratewordsinawiderange asindicatedinTable1.Thesixfamilieswithscoresbelow
ofmeaningfulcontexts,richsemanticnetworksareformed 30wouldbeconsideredoflowSES.Twoofthe23children
andgeneralizationoflearningisfostered. haddiagnosed disabilities (onewith cerebralpalsy,the
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate otherunreported).Allparticipantswereeligibletoattend
ClasswideVocabularyReviewStrategies(CVRS),anex- kindergartenthefollowingyear.
tensiontotheStoryFriendscurriculum.Thisinstructional Allchildrenwhoseparentsconsentedwerescreened
componentwasdesignedtoincreasevocabularylearningin todeterminetheireligibility.Atotalof48childrenfrom
preschoolchildrenreceivingtheStoryFriendssmall-group fourclassroomswereinitiallyscreenedwiththreescreening
explicit vocabulary instruction. Teachers were provided measures:(a)thePictureNamingSubtestoftheIndividual
withpromptsandmaterialstoencouragereviewofand Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI; Wackerle-
opportunitiestopracticevocabularywordsduringroutine Hollman,McConnell,&Rodriguez,2017), (b) the Peabody
classroomactivitiesthroughouttheschoolday.Thefollow- PictureVocabularyTest–FourthEdition(PPVT-IV;Dunn
ingresearchquestionswereaddressed: &Dunn,2007),and(c)theCoreLanguagesubtests ofthe
ClinicalEvaluationofLanguageFundamentalsPreschool–
1. TowhatextentdoestheadditionofCVRStothe
SecondEdition(CELFPreschool-2;Wiig,Secord,&Semel,
StoryFriendsprogramimprovevocabularylearning
2004).Thesetools areindividuallyadministered,norm-
comparedtotheStoryFriendsprogramalonefor
referenced measures of expressivevocabulary,receptive
childrenwithbelow-averageorallanguageskillsat
vocabulary,andorallanguageskills.TheIGDIPicture
riskforreadingdifficulties?
Namingsubtestwasadministeredtoidentifychildrenwith
2. TowhatextentdotheCVRSresultinvocabulary significantlanguagedelays(lackingincorevocabulary)and
learningamongabove-averagechildrenwhoarenot thosewhowereexceeding expectations.Thus,children
exposedtothesmall-groupvocabularyinstruction? withRausch-basedscoresbetween46and52,indicating
3. Towhatextentdoteachersocialvalidityresultsand poortomoderateorallanguageskillsrelativetoanorma-
proceduralfidelitymeasuresattesttotheusability tivesample,wereidentifiedforfurtherlanguagetesting.
andfeasibilityofStoryFriendsandCVRSprogram Childrenwereselectediftheirstandardscoreswereatthe
components? normtonomorethan1.5SDsbelowthemeanoneither
thePPVT-IVortheCELFPreschool-2tobeincludedas
primaryparticipants.Participantsdemonstratedmeanscores
Method on thePPVT-IV,CELF Preschool-2,andIGDIof 93.0
(SD=7.2),90.7(SD=6.67),and48.7(SD=2.23),respec-
Participants
tively.Children’sperformances on these measuresare
Four preschool teachers and 23 childrenwere re- provided in Table1.Threeof 26selectedchildren were
cruitedfromfourstate-subsidized,VoluntaryPrekindergarten excludedfromthestudyduetolowattendance.
(VPK) classrooms serving children primarily from low- Tenchildrenwithconsistentattendancerecordsfrom
incomehouseholds.Thefourfemaleclassroomteachers twoofthelargerVPKclassroomswereinitiallyscreened
ranged from 31 to 50 years of age; two were multiracial, foreligibilityandexcludedduetohighPPVTscores(M=
onewasAfricanAmerican,andonewasHispanic.The 110,SD=4.7).Thesechildrendidnotparticipateinthe
teachershad3–15yearsofteachingexperience;eachattended small-groupinterventionbutwereexposedtotheCVRS.
somecollege,withonereceivingherassociatedegree.Four By testing thesechildren at posttest,wesought to gain
Sevenetal.:ClasswideExtensionsofVocabularyIntervention 175
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Table1.Childandfamilycharacteristics.
Class Child Gender Age SESscoresa Ethnicity PPVT CELF IGDI_PN
A 01.b F 4–8 46 Asian 101 94 52.
02 F 4–11 53 AfricanAmerican 96 94 47.
03 F 3–11 43.5 AfricanAmerican 97 90 48.
04 F 4–10 42.5 Caucasian 101 102 50.
05 M 4–3 66 Caucasian 97 79 47.
06.b F 4–1 66 Asian 101 100 50.
B 07 M 4–0 AfricanAmerican 101 84 47.
08 M 4–7 33 AfricanAmerican 91 90 48.
09.b F 4–1 37 Hispanic/Latino 96 100 50.
10 F 4–6 27 AfricanAmerican 97 86 53.
11 M 4–7 13 AfricanAmerican 100 90 47.
C 12 F 5–5 53 Multiracial 85 79 53.
13 F 5–5 53 Multiracial 92 94
14 M 4–9 53 Multiracial 88 90 48.
15 M 4–9 53 AfricanAmerican 84 84 47.
16 M 5–5 AfricanAmerican 94 100 50.
17 M 4–9 48 AfricanAmerican 84 86 46.
D 18 M 3–10 14 AfricanAmerican 95 86 48.
19 M 4–5 25 AfricanAmerican 76 88 46.
20 F 4–4 28 AfricanAmerican 82 86 48.
21.b F 5–0 34.5 Hispanic/Latino 99 100 52.
22 F 4–9 <8 AfricanAmerican 94 94 48.
23 F 4–5 32 AfricanAmerican 87 90 46.
M 92.96 90.70 48.68
SD 7.12 6.67 2.23
Note. SES=socioeconomicstatus;PPVT-IV=PeabodyPictureVocabularyTest–FourthEdition;CELF=ClinicalEvaluationofLanguage
FundamentalsPreschool–SecondEdition,CoreLanguageSubtest;IGDI_PN=IndividualGrowthandDevelopmentIndicatorPictureNaming
Subtest;F=female;M=male.
aSESscoreswerecalculatedbasedonHollingshead’sFourFactorIndexofSocialStatus(Hollingshead,1975).Scoresof55–66areinthe
majorbusinessandprofessionalstrata,scoresof40–54areinthemediumbusinessandminorprofessionalstrata,scoresof30–39areinthe
skilledcraftsmenandclericalstrata,scoresof20–29areinthesemiskilledworkersstrata,andscoresof8–19areintheunskilledworkers
strata.bFamiliesofthesechildrenreportedthatchildrenspoketwolanguagesathome.Child1andChild6spokeTeleguandEnglish,and
Child9andChild21spokeSpanishandEnglishathome.
preliminaryinformationontheextentofvocabularylearning TheintroductorybookintroducesJungleFriendscharac-
thatoccurredasafunctionoftheCVRSalone(i.e.,with- tersandtheprocedureofinteractivebook-readingsessions.
outsmall-groupinstruction). EachJungleFriendsinstructionalbookincludesinterac-
tiveembeddedlessonstoexplicitlyteachfourchallenging
Setting words(e.g.,enormous,soar),whichwouldqualifyasTier2
vocabularyaccordingtoBecketal.(2013).Thesevocabu-
Assessments,screening,andinterventiontookplace
larywordswereselectedbasedontheirfrequencyinadult
atfourVPKchildcarecenters.Thesecentersweresituated
language,theirutilityforacademiclanguageinstruction,
inhigh-povertyneighborhoods.Thesmall-groupStory
their relevance to the storyline, their applicability to a
Friendslisteningcentersessionstookplaceinsmallquiet varietyofcontexts,andchildren’slackoffamiliaritywith
roomsasdesignatedbyschooladministrators.
Intervention Components and Materials
Table2.ListofJungleFriendsbooksusedinthisstudy.
AutomatedListeningCenters
TheStoryFriendsprogramincludesautomatedlis- NJF NewJungleFriend
teningcentersdeliveredinsmallgroupsandfacilitatedby EFD Ellie’sFirstDay
anadult.Childrenlistentoprerecordedstorybookswith MMA MarquezMonkeyAround
MBD Marquez’sBackwardsDay
embedded,explicitlessonstoteachchallengingvocabulary
EGS EllieGetsStuck
words.ListeningcentermaterialsincludeStoryFriends ECF IfElephantsCouldFly
storybooks,mp3playerswithaccompanyingaudiofiles,an LBF Leo’sBraveFace
audiosplitter,andheadphones.Thestorybooksetforthis LLR LeoLoseshisRoar
studyincludedoneintroductorybook(MeettheJungle
Note. Theorderofthebookswascounterbalancedbetween
Friends)and eight instructional books from the Jungle classrooms.
Friendsbookseries.ThebooktitlesarepresentedinTable2.
176 JournalofSpeech,Language,andHearingResearch (cid:129) Vol.63 (cid:129) 173–189 (cid:129) January2020
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thetargetwords(basedonpriortestingwithpreschoolers). researchstaffandteachersduringthestudy.Attheendof
Eachtargetvocabularywordistaughtintwoembedded training,researchstaffsharedtheclassroomextension
lessons per book that include systematic instructional materialsandhelpedteacherssetthemupintheclassroom.
language.Duringeachlesson,childrenareprovidedwith
threeopportunitiestosaytheword,twoopportunitiesto
StoryFriendsListeningCenters
saythedefinition,anexampleofthewordinthecontext
TrainedresearchstafffacilitatedtheStoryFriends
ofthestory,anexampleofthewordinacommonlife
experience,andanactivityrelatedtotheword’smeaning. listeningcentersthreetimesaweek.Theroleof thefacili-
tatorwastoensurethateachchildhadaheadphoneand
Thechildrenrespondtothebooknarratorandspeakout
a book and to encourage children to participate (e.g.,
loud while wearing headphones; the adult monitoring
respondingtothenarrator’sinstructions)andtostayon
looksonexpectantlyandpromptschildrenonoccasion.
task(e.g.,turningthepages).Thefacilitatorprovidedpraise
Childrenlisten to each book three times per week.Each
foron-taskbehaviorandredirectedchildrenwhenneces-
Story Friends prerecorded audio includes four target
vocabularywordsthatare10–12mininlength.Intotal, sary but did not provide any additional instruction or
explicitapprovalofthechildren’sresponses.Implementa-
childrenspentlessthan40mininsmallgroupseachweek.
tionoflisteningcentersbyresearchstaffensuredthatthe
teacherswereblindtowordsintroducedinthebooksin
CVRS
theStoryFriends–onlycontrolcondition.
ThepurposeofCVRSistopromptteacherstopro-
Children participated in the listening centers in
videopportunitiestoreviewandpracticetheuseoftarget
groupsofthreeorfourwiththefacilitator.Priortolisten-
vocabularywordsincontextsbeyondtheiruseinStory
ingtoanyoftheinstructionalbooks,participantslistened
Friendsbooks.Thematerialsaredesignedtobeeasyto
totheStoryFriendsintroductorybook(MeettheJungle
use,flexible,andreadilyincorporatedintoawiderangeof
Friends)onetime.Theintroductorysessionenabledthem
typicalclassroomroutines.
topracticelisteningcenterexpectationsandprocedures,
AspartoftheCVRScondition,teacherswereprompted
suchasrespondingtotheinteractivelessonsandturning
toreviewtarget wordswithtext messageremindersand
pageswhendirected.
in-classvisualremindersandmaterials.Dailytextmessage
Inbothconditions,childrenparticipatedinsmall-
remindersmodeledfivesentencesperweekthatcouldbe
groupcentersthreetimesperweek.Promptsandmaterials
usedinvariousclassroomconversations.Thesesentences
usedintheCVRSconditionwereintroducedeveryother
includedphrasesthatrelatedtochildren’sexperiences,or
week.DuringtheCVRScondition,teacherspracticedtarget
thatofferedfurtherexplanationsofwords,orpromptsfor
vocabularywordsfromagivenbookduringtheweekthe
childrentocompletesentencesorrespondtorequestsor
bookwasintroduced,andtheycontinuedtopracticethe
questions(e.g.,“Youarebirds!LiftupyourwingsandSoar
samevocabularywordsforasecondweekaschildrenlis-
tothedoor!”).Thesetextmessagesweresenttotheteachers
tenedtoanewbookinthelisteningcenter–onlycondition.
attheirpreferredtimeoftheday.Visualremindersand
materialsincludedwordcards,aweeklywordchart,anda
reviewboard.Thewordcardsweredesignedtoremind
Dependent Variables
teacherstousephraseswithtargetvocabularywordsduring
schooltime.TheweeklywordchartincludedVelcro-backed Children’sknowledgeoftargetedvocabularywords
cards with the Tier 2 words and meanings to remind wasassessedusingamasterymonitoringprobe.Mastery
teacherstousethetargetwordsandhelpthemkeeptrack monitoringvocabularyprobesintermixedtestingofwords
oftheirfrequencyofworduse.Thereviewboardfunctioned tobetaughtwithwordsthatwerepreviouslytaught.Words
asawordwalltopromptreviewofpreviouslytaughttarget were each assessed at four time points: pretest (before
vocabularywordsandincludedsmallpicturesfromthe listening to storybooks), posttest (after completing three
storyaswellasreal-lifepictures(seeFigure1). listeningcenters),Maintenance1(1weekafterposttest),
andMaintenance2(2weeksafterposttest).Thus,testing
occurredonfoursuccessiveweeksforeachbook.During
Procedure
themasterymonitorprobes,childrenwereaskedtopro-
The duration of the study from teacher training vide definitions for targeted vocabulary words (e.g.,
through the administration of maintenance probes was Whatdoessoarmean?).Thechildresponseswerescored
11weeks.Priortoimplementation,classroomteachers asreflectingcompleteknowledge(2points),partialknowl-
received a brief training (~60 min) in a quiet room to edge (1 point), and no knowledge (0 points), with a
discusstheprogramprocedureandexpectations.Thefollow- maximumscoreof8forfourtargetvocabularywordsper
ingtopicswerepresentedatthemeeting:(a)thebenefits book.
ofwordlearningonchildren’sacademicsuccess,(b)sched- Socialvalidityassessmentswereconductedtoevaluate
uling and situating Story Friends listening centers for self-reportedteacherperceptionsregardingtheirimpressions
threesessionseachweek,(c)therationaleofStoryFriends andsatisfactionwiththeprogramanditsfeasibility.The
CVRS and howto makeuseof thematerials provided, twoassessmentsincludedastructuredinterviewwithseven
and (d)thedailyexpectations,requirements,androlesfor open-endedquestionsandasurveywithnineLikert-scale
Sevenetal.:ClasswideExtensionsofVocabularyIntervention 177
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Figure1.ComponentsofClasswideVocabularyReviewStrategies.
questionsthatevaluatedteachers’attitudesandideasre- pretest,100%atposttest,93.75%atMaintenance1,and
gardingtheStoryFriendscurriculum. 96.87%atMaintenance2probes.
Researchstaffwhofacilitatedthelisteningcenters
collectedfieldnotesduringschoolvisitsthatoverlappedwith
Experimental Design and Analysis
classrooms’circleandcentertimes.Thesefieldnoteswere
notcollectedsystematically,butwetookadvantageofeight AsinpriorevaluationsofStoryFriendsintervention,
20-minopportunitiestogatherexamplesofhowteachers arepeatedacquisitiondesignwasusedtodeterminethe
wereaddressingtargetwordsintheclassroom.Theobservers extenttowhichvocabularylearningeffectswerereplicated
transcribedtheseteacher–childconversationsverbatim. within and across participants for each book. The crite-
rionfordemonstratingexperimentaleffectsrequiredagain
from before intervention to after intervention of at least
Fidelity of Assessment Administration
2wordpoints(e.g.,theequivalentoflearningonewordor
and Scoring Reliability
demonstratingpartialknowledgeoftwowords)foreach
The research staff received training on all mea- book.Thus,wecalculatedthepercentageofbooksforwhich
sures.This training covered administration of the CELF learningeffectswerereplicated.
Preschool-2, PPVT-IV, and IGDI Picture Naming stan- Toanswerourprimaryresearchquestionforthis
dardizedassessmenttools,aswellastheresearcher-developed study,anadaptedalternatingtreatmentsdesign(AATD)
masterymonitorvocabularyprobes.Masterymonitorvo- wasusedtocomparetheeffectsofStoryFriendslistening
cabulary assessmentsessions wererecorded to examine centerinstructionalone(SF)versusStoryFriendslistening
thefidelityoftest administration.A second research staff centerinstructionwithCVRS.TheAATDwasselected
member listenedto20%ofalltestingsessionsandjudged because of its applicability to comparing the effects of
whetheritemswerereadcorrectly,responseswererecorded instructionalpracticeswithnonreversiblebehaviors(Gast&
accurately,and thestandardprompting protocolwas Ledford,2014).Theorderofthetwoconditionswascoun-
followed.Fidelityofassessmentadministrationaveraged terbalancedacrossclassroomstocontrolforpossiblediffer-
89%(range:71%–98%). encesinworddifficultyamongbooks.TheSFcondition
Afteraprimarytrainedresearcherscoredallmea- includedthreelisteningcentersessionsandlasted1week
sures,asecondtrainedstaffmemberrescored20%ofthe foreachbook.TheCVRSconditionalsoincludedlisten-
masterymonitorvocabularyassessmentstoassessreliabil- ingcenterslasting1weekandaddedteacher-implemented
ity.Item-by-itemresponseagreementwascalculatedby classroomvocabularyreviewstrategiesthatoccurredfor
dividingtheagreementsbythetotalnumberofagreement 2weeks.Thesetwoconditionswereinitiatedinanalternat-
anddisagreements.Interrateragreementpercentageswere ingfashionwitheachnewbook,andbookassignmentwas
high, averaging 96.9% (range: 93.75%–100): 100% at counterbalancedamongclassrooms.Thus,fourbookswere
178 JournalofSpeech,Language,andHearingResearch (cid:129) Vol.63 (cid:129) 173–189 (cid:129) January2020
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assignedtotheSFcondition,andfourbookswereassigned for fourtarget vocabulary wordsper bookbeforeinter-
totheCVRScondition,exceptforClassB,whichwith- vention(pretest),afterintervention(posttest),andafterthe
drewfromthestudyaftersixbooksbecausetheclassroom secondandthirdweeks(Maintenance1and2).Thus,vo-
teachertransferredtoanotherpreschool. cabularylearningscoreswereplottedatfourtimepoints
Visualanalyses,descriptivestatistics,multilevelmodel- foreachbook,withclosedtrianglesdenotingtheStory
ingprocedures,andsummariesofsocialvalidityandpro- Friends–only (SF) condition and closed circles denoting
ceduralfidelitymeasureswereusedtoevaluatetreatment theStoryFriends+CVRScondition.Theexpectedlearning
effects.First,visualanalysisallowedresearcherstodeter- trendwasanabruptchangeinlevelafterintroducingthe
minewhetherfunctionalrelationsbetweentreatmentsand SFintervention.However,higherlevelsandgreaterstabil-
vocabularylearningweredemonstrated,whetherlearning itywereexpectedfortheSF+CVRScondition.
wasenhancedbyCVRS,andtheextenttowhichresults First,usingtherepeatedacquisitiondesign,weevalu-
were replicated within and across participants (Gast & atedwhethertherewererepeatedimprovementsfrom
Ledford,2014). pretesttoposttests/maintenancetestsasbookswereintro-
Second,vocabularygainswerecomputedforeach ducedeachweek.The23childrenwereexposedtoasmany
studentforeachoftheeightbooksbysubtractingpretest as eight books each, resulting in a total of 174 possible
scoresfromtheaverageofvocabularyscoresforthepost- replications.Learningeffectsofanincreaseofatleast2
test,Maintenance1,andMaintenance2.Thesegainscores wordpointswasdemonstratedfor89%ofthe174possible
wereinitiallyanalyzeddescriptivelybycomputingleast replications.Becausetherewere3weeksofposttestingand
squareestimates,thatis,meangainacrossbooksforeach maintenancetestingforeachbook,variabilityinperfor-
experimentalcondition(SFandCVRS)foreachparticipant. mancecanbeseen(seeFigures2–4).Mostoften,theper-
Third,atwo-level,linear,cross-classified,random formancestayed relatively consistent with theposttest.
effectsmodelingprocedurewasusedtofurthercharacter- Youwillseeexamplesofdrop-offs,stability,andincreases
izevariationsinchildren’svocabularygains.Althoughthe inlearninggainsinboththeSFandCVRSconditions,
automated nature of SF listening centers results in high withmoreexamplesofcontinuedgrowthintheCVRS
treatmentfidelity,teachersaremorelikelytovaryinthe condition.Interestingly,alackoflearningeffectswasdem-
extenttowhichtheyimplementCVRS.Becausechildren onstrated17timesforbooksduringtheSFconditionand
arenestedinclassrooms,multilevelmodelingwasapplied. onlythreetimesduringtheCVRScondition.
Morespecifically,fixedeffectsinthemodelallowedusto Second, the first and last authors independently
estimateandtesttheaveragedifferenceingainsbetween judgedwhethertheAATDrevealeddifferentialexperimen-
thetwotreatmentconditions(CVRSandSF),aswellasto taleffectsforeachparticipantwhencomparingtheSFand
estimatedifferencesingainsbetweentheclassrooms,which CVRSconditions.Theywereinagreementfor91%ofthe
wetreatedasfixedeffectsbecausetherewerelessthanfive participants.Figures2–4areorganizedaccordingtothe
classrooms,andtotesttheclassroombytreatmenteffects. agreed-uponresultsof thisvisualanalysis.Figure2pre-
Therandomeffectsinthemodelallowedustoexamine sents12childrenwhodemonstratedoverallhigherperfor-
thevariationinthegainsacrossbooksandchildren.The manceintheCVRSconditionthanintheSFcondition;
cross-classifiedrandomeffectsmodelinganalyseswerecon- Figure3presentsthreechildrenwhodidnotshowdifferen-
ductedusingSPSSmixedmodelswithrestrictedmaximum tialeffectsbecauseofceilingeffects(i.e.,veryhighvocabu-
likelihoodestimation.Satterthwaiteestimateddegreesof larylearninginbothconditions);andFigure4presents
freedomwereappliedtoobtainfixed-effectinferencesthat eightchildren,sixofwhomshowedinconsistentdifferential
have been shown to be accurate with single-case data effectsbetweenconditionsandtwochildren(P18andP19)
(Ferron,Bell,Hess,Rendina-Gobioff,&Hibbard,2009; whoshowedweaklearningeffectsingeneral.
Ferron,Farmer,&Owens,2010). Weaveragedthegainsforeachofthebooksassigned
Finally, social validity, procedural fidelity, field toeachconditiontoobtainthemeangainforeachchild
notes,andteacher-reportedimplementationdataprovided (seeTable3).AveragechildvocabularygainsintheCVRS
richdatasourcestoevaluatetheteacherperceptionsandto conditionwere4.7wordpoints(SD=1.37)versusamean
gather examples of teacher-improvised implementation. of2.8wordpoints(SD=1.16)intheSFcondition,adif-
Aftercompilingandorganizingthequalitativedatafrom ferenceof1.9wordpoints.Averagechildvocabularygains
various resources, the common themes were identified alsovariedamongclassrooms.AscanbeseeninTable3,
throughopencodingandcodecondensation(Creswell& ClassroomsA,B,C,andDshoweddifferencesinmean
Poth,2017). gainscoresbetweentheCVRSandSFconditionsof0.6,
2.5,1.7,and3.0wordpoints,respectively.Basedonvisual
inspectionoftheAATD,weidentified12childrenwho
Results demonstratedhigherperformanceintheCVRScondition;
theiraveragegainovertheSFconditionwas2.86word
Comparing Vocabulary Gains Across Conditions
points.Interclasscorrelationcoefficientvarianceproportions
Visualanalysisoftheimmediacy,level,variability, werecalculatedfortheunconditionalmodel.Theinterclass
andmaintenanceofeffectswasconductedfor23graphs correlationcoefficientsinthisanalysiswere.31forchildren
presentedinFigures2–4.Datapointsreflectcorrectresponses and.049forbooks.Hence,atwo-level,linear,cross-classified,
Sevenetal.:ClasswideExtensionsofVocabularyIntervention 179
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Figure2.ResultsofrepeatedacquisitionandadaptedalternatingtreatmentsdesignsshowingsuperiorwordlearningfortheClasswide
VocabularyReviewStrategiescondition(solidcircles)versustheStoryFriends–onlycondition(solidtriangles).Thex-axisrepresentsthe
orderofabbreviatedbooknamesinTable2.Foreachbook,fourdatapointsareshownforpretest,postintervention,MaintenanceWeek1,
andMaintenanceWeek2.NJF=NewJungleFriend;EFD=Ellie’sFirstDay;MBD=Marquez’sBackwardsDay;MMA=MarquezMonkeyAround;
EGS=EllieGetsStuck;ECF=IfElephantsCouldFly;LBF=Leo’sBraveFace;LLR=LeoLoseshisRoar.
randomeffectsmodelwasusedtodisentanglehowthevocab-
ularygains,whichwerecross-classifiedby23childrenand β ¼γ þγ (cid:2)ðClassAÞþγ (cid:2)ðClassBÞþγ
1jk 10 11 12 13
eightbooks,variedasafunctionofexperimentalcondition (cid:2)ðClassCÞþν þu
1k 1j (Level2),(3)
(CVRSorSF)andclassroom.Morespecifically,
WORDKNOWijk ¼β0jkþβ1jkTreatmentþrijk whereWORDKNOWijkrepresentsithvocabularygainfor
(Level1),(1) thejthchildandthekthbook,treatmentiscoded1 for
CVRS and 0 for SF, and the Class variables are coded1
β0jk ¼γ00þγ01(cid:2)ðClassAÞþγ02(cid:2)ðClassBÞþγ03 fortheclassindicatedand0forallotherclasses.Thus,γ00
(cid:2)ðClassCÞþν þu (Level2),(2) istheaveragegaininClassDfortheSFcondition,and
0k 0j
180 JournalofSpeech,Language,andHearingResearch (cid:129) Vol.63 (cid:129) 173–189 (cid:129) January2020
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Figure3.ResultsofrepeatedacquisitionandadaptedalternatingtreatmentsdesignsshowingceilingeffectsfortheClasswideVocabulary
ReviewStrategiescondition(solidcircles)andtheStoryFriends–onlycondition(solidtriangles).Thex-axisrepresentstheorderof
abbreviatedbooknames.Foreachbook,fourdatapointsareshownforpretest,postintervention,MaintenanceWeek1,andMaintenance
Week2.NJF=NewJungleFriend;EFD=Ellie’sFirstDay;MBD=Marquez’sBackwardsDay;MMA=MarquezMonkeyAround;EGS=Ellie
GetsStuck;ECF=IfElephantsCouldFly;LBF=Leo’sBraveFace;LLR=LeoLoseshisRoar.
Figure4.Resultsofrepeatedacquisitionandadaptedalternatingtreatmentsdesignsshowingnodifferentialorminimalwordlearningforthe
ClasswideVocabularyReviewStrategiescondition(solidcircles)andtheStoryFriends–onlycondition(solidtriangles).Thex-axisrepresents
theorderofabbreviatedbooknames.Foreachbook,fourdatapointsareshownforpretest,postintervention,MaintenanceWeek1,and
MaintenanceWeek2.NJF=NewJungleFriend;EFD=Ellie’sFirstDay;MBD=Marquez’sBackwardsDay;MMA=MarquezMonkey
Around;EGS=EllieGetsStuck;ECF=IfElephantsCouldFly;LBF=Leo’sBraveFace;LLR=LeoLoseshisRoar.
Sevenetal.:ClasswideExtensionsofVocabularyIntervention 181
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Table3.Meansandstandarddeviationsofchildvocabularygainsbyexperimentalcondition.
StoryFriendsplusClasswide
VocabularyReviewStrategies StoryFriendsonly
Meandifference
ChildID M SD M SD betweenconditions
01a 5.50 1.66 6.25 0.43 −0.75
02b 5.67 1.51 2.25 0.72 3.42
03c 3.33 1.20 2.92 1.72 0.41
04a 4.33 1.39 5.50 1.50 −1.17
05c 4.75 1.11 4.58 2.19 0.17
06b 5.58 1.42 4.25 1.82 1.33
ClassroomA 4.86 1.38 4.29 1.40 0.57
07b 4.89 0.31 2.78 1.34 2.11
08b 2.67 1.41 1.00 0.82 1.67
09b 6.33 2.81 2.44 2.20 3.89
10b 5.56 2.64 2.89 0.83 2.67
11b 4.11 1.99 2.00 1.63 2.11
ClassroomB 4.71 1.83 2.22 1.36 2.49
12c 7.00 1.73 4.42 1.09 2.58
13a 6.17 1.28 5.75 1.38 0.42
14c 3.42 1.21 2.25 0.64 1.17
15b 3.67 0.33 1.58 0.98 2.09
16c 5.50 1.66 4.08 1.71 1.42
17b 3.50 1.09 0.83 0.87 2.67
ClassroomC 4.88 1.22 3.15 1.11 1.73
18c 1.71 1.14 0.83 1.26 0.88
19c 1.92 1.92 0.42 0.28 1.50
20b 3.75 1.75 0.75 0.36 3.00
21b 6.75 0.60 3.17 1.21 3.58
22c 6.67 0.91 3.58 1.14 3.09
23b 6.33 0.53 0.50 0.55 5.83
ClassroomD 4.52 1.14 1.54 0.80 2.98
Grandmean 4.74 1.37 2.83 1.16 1.92
Note. Italicizedvaluesindicatesummaryparametersforeachclassroom.
aChildrenwhodemonstratedhighvocabularyknowledgeinbothconditions.Therangeofmeandifferencescoresofconditionsare−1.17to
0.42,averaging−0.50.bChildrenwhodemonstratedoverallhighervocabularyknowledgeintheClasswideVocabularyReviewStrategies
conditionthantheStoryFriends–onlycondition.Therangeofmeandifferencescoresofconditionsare1.33–5.83,averaging2.86.
cChildrenwhodemonstratedinconsistentperformancebetweenconditions.Therangeofmeandifferencescoresofconditionsare0.17–3.08,
averaging1.40.
thedifferences in this gain forClassesA, B, and Care AsshowninTable4,theestimatedparameterrepre-
γ ,γ , and γ ,respectively. Thedifferencein average sentingchildvocabularygainsfortheSFconditionaver-
01 02 03
gainbetweentheCVRSandSFconditionsforClassD aged 1.50 word points for the reference classroom (i.e.,
is γ , whereas Classes A, B, and C differ from ClassD ClassroomD).ForClassroomsA,B,andC,theaverage
10
intheeffectofCVRSrelativetoSFbyγ γ ,andγ , gainswereestimatedtobe2.60,0.81,and1.49wordpoints
11, 12 13
respectively.Theerrorterms(i.e.,r ,ν ,u ,ν ,andu ) higher,respectively.Thus,theaveragegainsforthefour
ijk 0k 0j 1k 1j
areassumedtobenormallydistributed. classroomsfortheSFconditionwere4.10,2.31,2.99,and
Theproposedmodelstatisticallyfitsbetterthanan 1.50 word points. The classroom extension condition
unconditionalmodel,χ2=(11,N=174)=161.8,p<.01. expandedchildvocabularygainsbyanestimated2.80word
In addition, the model assumptions were evaluated by pointsforClassroomD,whichwasastatisticallysignifi-
examiningeachoftheresidualsinthemodelusingabox cantdifference,t(24)=4.75,p<.001.Whenfactoringin
plotforoutliers,ascatterplotforhomoscedasticity,anda theClass×Treatmentinteractions,theaveragegainsfor
QQ-plotfornormality.Resultsindicatedahomoscedastic theCVRSconditionwere4.80,4.80,4.96,and4.30for
residualdistributionwithmultivariatenormalityandinde- ClassroomsA,B,C,andD,respectively.
pendenceacrosslevelsandthatobservationswereindepen- AsseeninTable4,themodelalsorevealedseveral
dentconditionalonthevariancecomponents. statisticallysignificantvariancecomponents.Namely,the
182 JournalofSpeech,Language,andHearingResearch (cid:129) Vol.63 (cid:129) 173–189 (cid:129) January2020
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