Investigating the Use of Read Alouds for Elementary Students’ Vocabulary Development
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Three elementary teachers compared the impact of read alouds on their students’ use of target vocabulary words. Each teacher selected a picture book, identified six words that may be familiar but are not part of children’s productive vocabularies, developed vocabulary elaborations, and individually read the book aloud to four average-performing students. During the two “intentional” read alouds, the selected text was read using five elaborations for each of the target words. During the two “simple” read alouds, students heard the same text read without any elaborations. After the read aloud, each child was asked to retell what had been read. Each child’s use of the target words while retelling the story was noted by the teacher for occurrence and accuracy, and the overall quality of the retelling was rated. Findings revealed increased use of target words and more detail and explanation in retellings following an “intentional” read aloud compared with “simple” read aloud. Teachers perceived read alouds with vocabulary elaborations as having a positive impact on students’ familiarity with target words and story comprehension.
Institution: University of South Alabama
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7217628567