Language and Story

Language, Story and Reading Acquisition

An Independent Study Proposal

The relationship between vocabulary and phonemic awareness is becoming more important as researchers study preschool aged children. This relationship has the potential to connect varying strands of emergent literacy (print knowledge, oral language proficiency, and phonological awareness) into a system for reading acquisition for students in preschool through second grade, and will help the research and teaching community better serve students finding emergent and early literacy learning difficult. The goal of this independent study is to become more grounded in the literature connecting vocabulary and phonemic awareness, to participate in a small, quantitative research project, and to learn more about how vocabulary can be developed in children that may experience reading difficulties.

This independent study will help me complete my coursework as I turn to focus on my dissertation proposal. I am interested in studying the role oral language proficiency (vocabulary and syntax) plays in the reading and writing achievement gap existing at emergent and early reading stages. My dissertation will use a longitudinal, mixed method design. It will incorporate an intervention meant to increase vocabulary and syntactical flexibility and complexity, and to then study its effects on phonological awareness and reading acquisition. I intend to use this independent study to define the intervention and to situate it in the current vocabulary/phonological awareness literature.

There are four learning objectives that will lead me to outlining the need for and details of a language based intervention. First, I will replicate and extend research connecting vocabulary and phonemic awareness with a focus on kindergarten, first and second grade students. I will receive guidance in preparing a well constructed literature review, selecting appropriate measures, requesting human subject approval, collecting and statistically analyzing data, and preparing a scholarly report on the study to be submitted for publication. I will also read to gain a better understanding of the following:

How the unified lexicalist theory and linguistic schema theory interplay with English vocabulary development in native English speaking children and students learning English as an additional language.
The various story structures and discourses that exist across cultures.
The influences of socioeconomic status, nonstandard English, and English language learning on English language development.

Each of the three learning objectives bulleted above will include a generation of implications for classroom practice and action research.

There are several learning activities that support the four objectives stated above. The learning activities associated with the small study are a research proposal to be submitted to the Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB), data collection and analysis upon approval, and the writing of a scholarly report. The goal of the research is to add to existing literature that connects vocabulary and phonemic awareness by using similar measures with a diverse group of kindergarten, first, and second grade students. Researchers are finding a relationship between vocabulary and phonemic awareness, which supports the lexical restructuring model and a developmental perspective (Lonigan, 2007; Mestsala & Walley, 1998). Studying this relationship with students that are learning English and that speak nonstandard English will aid the development of ways to close the achievement gap that exists at the starting gate.

The research project is a concurrent, quantitative design. The questions are:

Is phonemic awareness related to word neighborhoods?
Is phonemic awareness related to vocabulary?
Is vocabulary related to word neighborhoods?
Is print knowledge related to phonemic awareness, word neighborhoods, and vocabulary?
Is sentence memory related to vocabulary, word neighborhoods, phonemic awareness, and print knowledge?

The Developmental Reading Assessment 2-Word Analysis (DRA2-WA) test will be used to measure phonemic awareness and print knowledge. The vocabulary subtest of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised will measure expressive vocabulary. A gating measure will be used to assess word neighborhoods (Metsala, 1998). The sentence memory subtest of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised will be used to measure ability to imitate increasingly complex grammatical structures, which will serve as an indicator of syntactic maturity (Manis, Lindsey, & Bailey, 2004). Multiple regressions will be used to analyze the data.

I anticipate that the same relationship exists for English language learners at this age because they, like native speakers, are at the onset of becoming phonologically aware and learning to read. That is, students with more advanced levels of English vocabulary will also score higher on the phonemic awareness tasks. English language learners, however, are learning to read in their second language rather than their first. It will be interesting to interpret the results given the nature of the task of emerging as a reader and writer in a secondary rather than primary language. However, interpretation will need to take head of the possible limitation of this study. This limitation is the degree to which the DRA2-WA will measure phonemic awareness for English language learners, which may skew the relationship in the analysis. It is my goal to submit the proposal to HSRB by early September. I will obtain permissions and collect and analyze data once approval has been granted. The final write up should be completed by the close of the semester.

The remaining learning objectives (to better understand lexicalist and linguistic schema theories; to better understand cultural story structures; and to better understand how SES, nonstandard English, and English language learning status influences continuous language development) will be met via an ongoing read and respond activity. Each of the three objectives will be treated as a separate reading unit. I will keep a journal using a structured entry format: synthesis with the known, implications on practice and research, influences on my work with teachers and students.

Dr. Burns is the primary instructor for this independent study. I will meet with her regularly throughout the process and look forward to discussing how Standard English vocabulary can be developed in students whose first language does not match Standard English. This dialogue will be accomplished in a hybrid fashion. I will send weekly or biweekly journal entries electronically. We will also meet in person at the onset of the independent study and four additional times (at the end of each reading module). Other meetings and communications will occur as needed. I will also be receiving guidance on the research project from my internship supervisor, Dr. Taboada. Linking the independent study with teaching and observing EDRD 630 will help solidify my intention to maintain a practical, action research stance as I research language development as a way to close the achievement gap in reading and writing.

I plan to receive guidance and feedback on the two course products, the paper and the journal, from Dr. Burns and my committee chair, Dr. White. I will also receive feedback on the research project from Dr. Taboada. I will revise my work as the course progresses in order to pass with an A or receive an incomplete until the standard for an A is met. The tentative reading list follows is attached as appendix A.

Appendix—Tentative Reading List

Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness

Garlock, V.M., Walley, A.C. & Metsala, J.L. (2001). Age-of-acquisition, word frequency and

neighborhood density effects on spoken word recognition: Implications for the developmentof phoneme awareness and early reading ability. Journal of Memory and Language,45, 468–492.

Grosjean, F. (1980). Spoken word recognition processes and the gating paradigm. Perception

and Psychophysics, 28, 267–283.

Lonigan, C. J. (2007). Vocabulary development and the development of phonological skills in

preschool children. In R.K. Wagner, A.E. Muse, & K. R. Tannenbaum (Eds.),Vocabulary acquisition: implications for reading comprehension (pp. 15-30). London: The Guilford Press.

Lonigan, C. J., Burgess, S. R. & Anthony, J. L. (2000). Development of emergent literacy and

early reading skills in preschool children: Evidence from a latent variable longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 36, 596-613.

Manis, F. R., Lindsey, K. A., & Bailey, C. E. (2004). Development of reading in grades k-2 in

spanish-speaking English-language learners. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 19(4), 214-224.

Metsala, J.L. & Walley, A.C. (1998). Spoken vocabulary growth and the segmental restructuring

of lexical representations: Precursors to phonemic awareness and early reading

ability. In J.L. Metsala & L.C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy

(pp. 89–120). Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum.

Scanlon, D. M. & Vellutino, F. R. (1996). Prerequisite skills, early instruction, and success in

first-grade reading: Selected results from a longitudinal study. Mental Retardation an

Developmental Disabilities Research Review, 2, 54-63.

Scarborough, H. S. (1998). Early identification of children at risk for reading disabilities:

Phonological awareness and some other promising predictors. In B. Shapiro, P. Accardo, & A. Capute (Eds.), Specific reading disability: A view of the spectrum (pp. 77-121). Timonium, MD: York Press.

Linguistic Theories

Bates, E., & Goodman, J. C. (1997). On the Inseparability of Grammar and the Lexicon: Evidence from Acquisition, Aphasia and Real-time Processing. Language & Cognitive Processes, 12(5/6), 507-584.

Story Structures/Discourses Across Cultures

Mol, S. E., Bus, A. G., deJong, M. T., & Smeets, D. J. H. (2008). Added value of dialogic parent-child book readings: A meta-analysis. Early Education and Development, 19(1), 7-26.

Purcell-Gates, V., Duke, N. K., & Martineau, J. A. (2007). Learning to read and write genre-

specific text: Roles of authentic experience and explicit teacher. Reading Research Quarterly, 42(1), 8-45.

Influences of Nonstandard English and English Language Learning

Hart, B., & Risley, T. (2003, January 1). The Early Catastrophe. The 30 Million Word Gap. American Educator, 27(1), 4. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ672461) Retrieved August 21, 2008, from ERIC database.

Hart, B., & Risley, T. (1999, January 1). The Social World of Children: Learning To Talk. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED432364) Retrieved August 21, 2008, from ERIC database

Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday expeirience of your american children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words language, life, and word in communities and classrooms. New York, N. Y.: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Justice, L. M., Mashburn, A. J., Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2008). Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 51-68.

Socio-cultural Influences on Language and Literacy Acquisition

References