Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a storybook-based academic vocabulary learning intervention for young children from low-income families. The transition to primary school is particularly challenging for low-income children. To help smooth this transition, this study implemented an academic vocabulary learning program using storybook-based activities. High-frequency general academic vocabulary was extracted from a corpus compiled from transcripts of kindergarten and primary-level classroom instruction, primary-level textbooks, and lesson plans presented in kindergarten curriculum guidelines. An experimental group was provided with opportunities to learn the target academic vocabulary while reading storybooks and participating in follow-up activities, when a control group participated in regular shared storybook reading sessions. The study found that the experimental group showed significantly more growth than the control group in knowledge of the target academic vocabulary.
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Notes
Introduced in 2012, Nuri is a national curriculum in Korea for all children aged 3–5 attending any type of early childhood education or child care center.
A comparison between the academic words selected in the study and those on the 570-item Academic Word List (AWL) created by Coxhead (2000) found overlap between 11 words: the Korean equivalents of feature, criteria, symbol, dimension, instruct, investigate, category, require, select, conduct, and predict.
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Kim, MJ. Efficacy of an Academic Vocabulary Intervention for Low-Income Children. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 26, 43–50 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-017-0325-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-017-0325-6