Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Lugo Neris, Mirza Jeannette
Author's Email Address	mirzalugo@yahoo.com
URN	etd-07092007-145836
Title	Facilitating Vocabulary Acquisition of Young English Language Learners
Degree	Master of Science
Department	Communication Disorders, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Carla Wood Jackson Committee Chair Christopher Lonigan Committee Member Howard Goldstein Committee Member Shurita Thomas-Tate Committee Member
Keywords	Bilingual Vocabulary Acquisition Preschool Spanish-English Bilinguals
Date of Defense	2007-04-24
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract A vocabulary intervention during shared storybook reading was implemented with 22 Spanish-English bilingual children. One intervention consisted of English expansions of vocabulary words and the other of English-supplemented-with-Spanish instruction. Participants between the ages of 4 and 6 received both interventions during a four-week summer program. It was hypothesized that the intervention incorporating Spanish would produce greater learning in three areas: naming, receptive knowledge, and expressive definitions. It also was hypothesized that the children’s initial language proficiency in each language would affect their learning from Spanish vocabulary expansions. Results revealed significant improvement in all three areas. The Spanish vocabulary expansions condition produced the greatest gains in expressive definitions. Also, the children’s initial language proficiency in Spanish and English was found to affect the children’s possible gains from the intervention. The thirteen participants with limited skills in both languages showed significantly less vocabulary growth than the participants who had strong skills in Spanish. Although both languages of intervention were beneficial, there were additional benefits to using Spanish expansions in the vocabulary instruction. Findings support previous literature that suggests shared reading is a useful tool to enhance word learning. This is especially true for bilingual children when supporting and strengthening a child’s first language and facilitating second-language acquisition. Future research should explore additional ways of enhancing the vocabulary growth of children with limited skills in both languages.
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