Area of Investigation

This study investigated the effects of a 2-day in-service education program, derived from the Learning Language and Loving It™ Program, on educators’ use of:

1. abstract language during story book reading
2. verbal print references during a post-story craft activity

The study also examined the frequency of children’s responses to educators’ abstract language use and verbal print references.

Participants

• Experimental group

  8 educators were randomly assigned to the experimental group. Their 2-day in-service education program consisted of:
  • Day 1 – strategies relating to the facilitation of child initiations, turn-taking and general language development
  • Day 2 – strategies to promote children’s emergent literacy skills – i.e., increasing use of decontextualized language and verbal references to print

• Control group

  8 educators were randomly assigned to the control group. Day 1 of their in-service education program was the same as that of the experimental group. Day 2 was on facilitating peer interaction.
  
  

Results & Key Findings

The following results were obtained when comparing the outcomes of the experimental versus the control group:

• Educators’ use of abstract utterances was classified into four levels of abstraction, from concrete (level 1) to highly abstract (level 4). At posttest, educators in the experimental group significantly increased their use of Level 3 utterances that invited children to make connections between the story and their personal experiences and emotions
• Educators in the experimental group increased their use of print references during a post-story craft activity to highlight letters, sound-letter correspondences and word concepts
• Children in the experimental group increased their rate of decontextualized responses to educators’ Level 3 utterances and their references to print when responding contingently to those of their educators

Implications

Children’s contingent responses to their educators’ Level 3 utterances can potentially increase their educators’ subsequent contingent responses containing abstract utterances and print references, thereby contributing to further learning. In addition, responding to verbal print references may serve to prime children for formal literacy instruction ( Justice & Ezell, 2004). Follow up studies are needed to determine whether educators maintained their skills and whether the short-term impact on children’s responses had an impact on their literacy outcomes over time.