Date
6-19-2024
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Maryna Svirska-Otero
Keywords
early childhood, reading acquisition, language intervention, science of reading, simple view of reading, response to intervention
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Entzminger, Kimberly Quattlebaum, "The Impact of Language Intervention on At-Risk Kindergarten and First-Grade Students’ Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary: A Quantitative, Quasi-Experimental Study" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5730.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5730
Abstract
This quantitative, quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group study examined the effect of specific language-based interventions on accelerating the receptive and expressive vocabulary development of kindergarten and first-grade students. Though language comprehension is essential for reading comprehension, few studies offer insight into identification and intervention for students who enter kindergarten and first grade without age or grade-appropriate vocabulary development. The study included 70 students from a Title One school in South Carolina, divided equally into control and intervention groups after initial screening using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary 5th edition and the Expressive Vocabulary Test 3rd edition. Standard scores were used to determine placement into the Story Champs language intervention program. Data was analyzed using two separate one-way analyses of covariance. A comparison of posttest results showed a statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups, providing evidence that specific language-based interventions can effectively accelerate young students' vocabulary development. The study contributes to the advancement of the field by providing insight into potentially effective interventions for students with vocabulary deficits in kindergarten and first grade. Future research could include tracking students over time, increasing the diversity of students in the study, and using a larger sample size. Professional development for teachers was identified in prior studies as important to student achievement, so future studies could also examine teacher's understanding of age-appropriate language and vocabulary development as well.
