Preschool instruction and children's emergent literacy growth.

TLDR

The study examined how diverse classroom language and literacy experiences affect preschoolers’ vocabulary and emergent literacy development. Results showed that increased time in code‑focused, teacher‑managed activities strongly promoted alphabet and letter‑word recognition, while meaning‑focused, child‑managed activities supported vocabulary growth, with student‑level instruction having a much larger effect than whole‑class instruction and effects varying by children’s initial vocabulary.

Abstract

Preschoolers’ (N 156) classroom language and literacy experiences, defined across multiple dimensions, and their vocabulary and emergent literacy development were investigated. Videotaped classroom observations revealed substantial variability in amount and types of language and emergent literacy activities, across classrooms and for individual children within classrooms. Generally, more time in emergent code-focused activities was associated with preschoolers’ alphabet and letter–word recognition growth, whereas more time in meaning-focused activities (e.g., book reading) was related to vocabulary growth. Only teacher- and teacher– child-managed activities were associated with alphabet and letter– word growth, whereas child-managed experiences, including play, were also associated with vocabulary growth. Overall, the effect size for student-level, code-focused instruction (small group) was about 10 times greater than was its classroom-level (whole-class) counterpart. There were Child Instruction interactions, with the impact of different activities varying with preschoolers’ incoming vocabulary and emergent literacy.