Emergent bilingual preschoolers' Spanish language development through parental read alouds and storytelling

Barriers to academic success for students of Mexican immigrant families have been identified as language, poverty, parents’ low education levels, and attitudes toward literacy. Despite home-based early intervention programs, academic and achievement gaps between Mexican immigrant Emergent Bilingual (EB) students and English monolingual students continue to persist and challenge educators and parents alike. One aspect that may account for the disparities may be the type of literacy practices that occur in the homes of Mexican immigrant families. This study explored the influence Spanish read alouds and storytelling has in the promotion and growth of Spanish oral language oracy for Mexican immigrant preschool EB students. The central research question of this study and its two subquestions addressed the following: How does oral storytelling in Spanish promote Spanish oral language development in EB preschoolers? 1. How does the Spanish role in storytelling assumed by the Mexican immigrant mother influence Spanish oracy skills in her EB preschooler? 2. How does the Mexican immigrant mother’s storytelling in Spanish influence the development and promotion of Spanish oracy skills in EB preschooler? A multiple case study approach was used. In order to provide a more in-depth understanding of the storytelling phenomenon, the data collection methods employed were observations, interviews, documents, field notes, and audiovisual materials. Snowball sampling, a non-probability technique, was utilized in the sample selection for the multiple-case study. Inclusion conditions for participants were the following: 1) Mexican immigrant mother, 2) Spanish dominant, 3) Spanish literate, 4) have an EB student between the ages of 3-4 enrolled in a Head Start program in a specified large coastal city in South Texas, 5) personal experience with Spanish oral storytelling, 6) participation consent, 7) agree to interviews and video-taped session in participant’s home, 8) participate in three face-to-face audio-recorded interviews, 9) agree to a video-taped storytelling discourse session with participant’s child, and 10) consent to transcriptions of audio-visual taped discourses. The exclusion conditions for the study were 1) Spanish is the dominant language spoken in the home and 2) caregivers that share in the childcare of the child participating in the study must be Spanish dominant. The findings indicated that storytelling in Mexican immigrant families is an acceptable home-based pre-literacy practice for promoting Spanish oral language development skills in their preschool EB students. The findings also provided insight about the influence Mexican immigrant mothers may have on Spanish oracy skills through the delivery of their storytelling discourse

2008 CEDER yearbook

Copyright © 2009 Center for Educational Development, Evaluation, and Research Texas A&M University-Corpus ChristiThe fifth annual conference of the Center for Educational Development, Evaluation and Research (CEDER) was held November 30 and December 1, 2007. The CEDER Conference focused on “Education for a Changing World.” More than 250 educators from around the United States and as far away as Venezuela and South Africa attended. The 2008 CEDER Yearbook is a peer-reviewed compilation of some of the papers delivered at that conference. Chapter 1, entitled, “Free Voluntary Reading: Still a Great Idea,” is presented by Dr. Stephen Krashen, one of the conference’s keynote speakers. He provides a meta-analysis of research linking access to books with child literacy rates and demonstrates that encouraging children to read for pleasure is a key to literacy development. The following 10 articles in this yearbook were selected by the Editorial Advisory Committee based on a number of criteria, including the importance and timeliness of the topic, theoretical grounding, and the contribution made to the field of education. Several themes run through this volume, which, when combined, paint a panoramic and vivid image of education for a changing world. Chapters 2 through 6 examine education for a changing world at the K-12 level. In Chapter 2, Barbara Marinak examines several methods in which the elements of informational text structures can be taught in elementary classrooms to increase reading comprehension. In chapters 3 and 4, the authors explore the implications of bilingual education in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse. Cherie McCollough, JoAnn McDonald, and JoAnn Canales use Chapter 3 to examine the ways in which culturally relevant family science learning events work to engage families in a child’s education. Special consideration is given to non-English speaking parents and family members. In Chapter 4, Frank Lucido, Christine Marroquin, Gina Reynolds, and Piedad Ymbert discuss brain-compatible teaching strategies and practical methods to develop bilingualism in students. Similarly, in Chapter 5, Connie Patchett, and Sherrye Dee Garrett call for the inclusion of more nonfiction in elementary classrooms as a way to overcome the “fourth grade slump” in reading comprehension. They provide several frameworks for the effective use of nonfiction texts with a variety of elementary students. In Chapter 6, Michael Moody takes a look at education in a changing world from an administrative perspective. He explores the relationship between school boards and their superintendants of schools, and the discrepancies in how they prioritize competencies for superintendant success. Chapters 7 through 11 explore higher education in a changing world. In Chapter 7, Teresa Le Sage and Barba Patton promote increasing pre-service teachers’ familiarity with using math/science notebooks to increase their effectiveness in the classroom. In Chapter 8, Kaye Nelson, Marvarene Oliver, and Darwin Nelson provide an overview of counselor education programs’ changes over time in response to the changing needs of a constantly fluctuating population. In Chapter 9, Barba Patton demonstrates the need for greater Internet literacy amongst pre-service teachers in an evaluation of lesson plans found online. Caroline Crawford, Richard Alan Smith, and Marion Smith, in Chapter 10, explore how web-based classes are changing college student perceptions of their instructors. Finally, in Chapter 11, Daniel Pearce, Wally Thompson and Tammy Francis Donaldson explore the effectiveness of a developmental reading class on the academic success of students in higher education. The world is changing rapidly, and it is important that educators adapt to these fluctuating circumstances and contexts. Education in a Changing World is not only about presenting emerging trends, but also about creating educators who are prepared to respond effectively to whatever challenges they may face in the future. Our sincerest thanks go out to everyone who contributed their talents to the creation this yearbook, and to all who participated in the Fifth Annual CEDER Conference