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Christa Japel, Université du Québec à MontréalMonique Brodeur, Université du Québec à MontréalÉric Dion, Université du Québec à MontréalCatherine Gosselin, Université du Québec à MontréalDeborah Simmons, Texas A & M UniversityDelphine Vuattoux, Université du Québec à Montréal
Executive Summary (PDF 26 KB)
Full Report (PDF in Frnech, 136 KB)
Reading skills are the key to successful integration in our society. When they start kindergarten, children normally have the skills that predispose them to learn to read. These skills—usually referred to as pre-literacy or emerging literacy skills—vary, however, based on previously acquired language skills and, more specifically, on the degree to which children have been stimulated by their parents and others in their environment.
Given the importance of early intervention, we developed an innovative approach based on proven research, aimed at improving the vocabulary of preschool at-risk children. Thirty “Mimi and her Friends” books were specially written and illustrated. The books use a corpus of specific words that have been identified as being familiar to children from privileged backgrounds, but unknown to at-risk children.
Quebec daycare teachers do not currently have access to proven methods for helping children from underprivileged backgrounds enrich their vocabulary. Our objective is to teach our group of children from underprivileged backgrounds words that are known and mastered by those of the same age from privileged backgrounds. To do this, we wrote thirty stories, each focussing on five or six words that are used twice in each reading. The stories are accompanied by a detailed pedagogical activity with definitions of the target words to be read to the children. Also, after each reading, educators conduct three activities designed to explain the new word, put it in context and make it familiar to the children.
At the beginning of the project, the two groups (control and intervention) were not statistically different in terms of the average age of the children and their socio-demographic characteristics. The two groups also demonstrated a similar level of receptive and expressive vocabulary. At the end of the intervention, the results indicate that, compared with the children in the control group, the children who received the intervention significantly increased their knowledge of the target words as measured by the number of correct definitions retained and produced post-test. Our explicit vocabulary-teaching intervention therefore proved to be effective because its effect remains significant even after taking into account individual and family factors that could have an impact on the children’s learning.
In conclusion, in addition to improving the vocabulary of children from underprivileged backgrounds, this project enhanced the teachers’ awareness of the learning needs of their group. Moreover, the protocol accompanying the set of books led to a change in their teaching practices when children are confronted with new words.
Finally, our results fuel the current discussion regarding which pedagogical approaches to favour in the preschool years, notably with regard to the traditional dichotomy between the explicit teaching approach and the constructivist approach. Our results emphasize that it is better to integrate the explicit teaching of vocabulary into a constructivist-oriented curriculum.
Furthermore, this approach should be applied to all language activities and be a part of daily interactions in preschool settings, particularly those attended by children from underprivileged backgrounds.
The results of this project also have major public policy implications. For example, programs for children from underprivileged backgrounds should be designed to combine active learning with the explicit teaching of certain content. Educators should be properly trained, be given enough time to plan and prepare activities, and receive the training and support needed to implement scientifically validated interventions. These interventions should be an integral part of any program aimed at reducing the gap between children who are more privileged and those who are less privileged in terms of their socioeconomic and family background.