title: Effective early literacy skill development for young Spanish-speaking English language learners: an experimental study of two methods.
abstract: Ninety-four Spanish-speaking preschoolers (M age = 54.51 months, SD = 4.72; 43 girls) were randomly assigned to receive the High/Scope Curriculum (control n = 32) or the Literacy Express Preschool Curriculum in English-only (n = 31) or initially in Spanish transitioning to English (n = 31). Children's emergent literacy skills were assessed before and after the intervention in Spanish and English. Children in the English-only and transitional groups made significant gains in their emergent literacy skills in both Spanish and English compared to the control group, The English-only and transitional models were equally effective for English language outcomes, but for Spanish-language outcomes, only the transitional model was effective. The results suggest that a targeted early literacy intervention can improve Spanish-speaking preschoolers' preliteracy skills.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Department of Psychology, SGM 501 Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, USA. farver@usc.edu
authors.forename: Jo Ann M
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Farver
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lonigan
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eppe
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational / Q000379:methods*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism