Vocabulary Acquisition Of Bilingual Students Through The Implementation Of Dialogic Shared Storybook Reading Techniques

Children who are learning English as a second language and whose caregivers speak only Spanish were chosen to participate in the study. Parents were trained using Dialogic Shared Storybook Reading (DSSR) techniques (Whitehurst, 1988). The study was a single subject multiple baseline design across behaviors. Reading conditions were counterbalanced to control for acquisition of new vocabulary. There were a total of five participants, three children and two mothers (n=5). The participants were separated into two families. Each family was exposed to three reading book conditions while the parents implemented the specified techniques: 1. Shared reading with an electronic, bilingual Spanish/ English book (E-Book), 2. Shared reading with a conventional English paper book. 3. Shared reading with a conventional Spanish paper book. Data was collected to answer the following research questions: 1. Does the implementation of Dialogic Shared Storybook Reading techniques across different reading conditions contribute to vocabulary acquisition of ESL students, 2. Do ESL students spend more time using the Spanish/English E-Books versus conventional English and Spanish paperback books. Results indicate shared reading with DSSR may contribute to increased vocabulary knowledge regardless of the language of the book. There were no significant differences in standardized one word receptive vocabulary measures in English and Spanish. As an entire group, there was a significant increase in the specific non-standardized vocabulary in English. There was not a trend for more time spent in shared reading across the reading book conditions with the two families but overall, average lap time spent reading each book was the same