Matching Items (2)
Description
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effects of a family literacy program for Latino parents' language practices at home and their children's oral language skills. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which: (a) the program called Family Reading Intervention for Language and Literacy in Spanish (FRILLS) was effective at teaching low-education, low-income Latino parents three language strategies (i.e., comments, high-level questions and recasts) as measured by parent implementation, (b) parents maintained implementation of the three language strategies two weeks following the program, and (c) parent implementation of such practices positively impacted children's oral language skills as measured by number of inferences, conversational turns, number of different words, and the Mean Length of Utterance in words (MLU-w).
Five Latino mothers and their Spanish-speaking preschool children participated in a multiple baseline single-subject design across participants. After stable baseline data, each mother was randomly selected to initiate the intervention. Program initiation was staggered across the five mothers. The mothers engaged in seven individual intervention sessions. Data on parent and child outcomes were collected across three experimental conditions: baseline, intervention, and follow-up. This study employed visual analysis of the data to determine the program effects on parent and child outcome variables.
Results indicated that the program was effective in increasing the mothers' use of comments and high-level questions, but not recasts, when reading to their children. The program had a positive effect on the children's number of inferences, different words, and conversational turns, but not on the mean length of utterances. Findings indicate that FRILLS may be effective at extending and enriching the language environment that low-income children who are culturally and linguistically diverse experience at home. Three results with important implications for those who implement, develop, or examine family literacy programs are discussed.
This study investigated the effects of a family literacy program for Latino parents' language practices at home and their children's oral language skills. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which: (a) the program called Family Reading Intervention for Language and Literacy in Spanish (FRILLS) was effective at teaching low-education, low-income Latino parents three language strategies (i.e., comments, high-level questions and recasts) as measured by parent implementation, (b) parents maintained implementation of the three language strategies two weeks following the program, and (c) parent implementation of such practices positively impacted children's oral language skills as measured by number of inferences, conversational turns, number of different words, and the Mean Length of Utterance in words (MLU-w).
Five Latino mothers and their Spanish-speaking preschool children participated in a multiple baseline single-subject design across participants. After stable baseline data, each mother was randomly selected to initiate the intervention. Program initiation was staggered across the five mothers. The mothers engaged in seven individual intervention sessions. Data on parent and child outcomes were collected across three experimental conditions: baseline, intervention, and follow-up. This study employed visual analysis of the data to determine the program effects on parent and child outcome variables.
Results indicated that the program was effective in increasing the mothers' use of comments and high-level questions, but not recasts, when reading to their children. The program had a positive effect on the children's number of inferences, different words, and conversational turns, but not on the mean length of utterances. Findings indicate that FRILLS may be effective at extending and enriching the language environment that low-income children who are culturally and linguistically diverse experience at home. Three results with important implications for those who implement, develop, or examine family literacy programs are discussed.
ContributorsMesa Guecha, Carol Magnolia (Author) / Restrepo, María A (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Shelley (Committee member) / Jimenez-Silva, Margarita (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Although an integral part of the pedagogical process is the evaluation of students, questions remain about the purpose and characteristics of effective assessments. Assessments should benefit both the instructor and the student, but this could be a challenge in large classes, such as the English service courses offered at the University of Guyana (UG), which are compulsory courses offered to over 2,000 first year students annually. However, the transition to online delivery of these courses because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has offered new opportunities for innovation in relation to course assessments. Consequently, this Action Research study was undertaken with the intention of improving the methods of assessment in the course, Introduction to the Use of English (ENG 1105), one of the three English service courses currently offered at UG.Multiple methods of data collection, including surveys, and semi-structured interviews, observations and analyses were used to determine how the assessment strategies used in the course helped develop academic self-efficacy in students and prepare them for other courses in their programs of study. The findings from the first two cycles of this study suggest that while the current assessment methods used in the course are beneficial to both lecturers and students, there is a need to adjust aspects of the assessments so students benefit from assessments that better align with other courses in their programs, as well as sharpen their English language skills. The third cycle captures the impact that the use of an innovation-an ungraded portfolio-had on student learning and suggests it should become a regular feature in the English service courses.
ContributorsMc Gowan, Mark Alastair (Author) / Thompson, Nicole L (Thesis advisor) / Fischman, Gustavo E (Committee member) / Wolf, Leigh G (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023