Main Article Content
ene 23, 2020
Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of two interventions (phonological awareness (PA) only versus a combined intervention on PA, vocabulary, and morphological awareness (MA)) in Argentinean kindergarteners from low SES on their reading comprehension at the end of grade one. Participants were 129 Spanish monolingual, Argentinian children from low SES backgrounds. Using a pre-posttest quasi-experimental design, we compared three conditions: (a) intervention on PA only, (b) combined intervention (PA + vocabulary + MA), (c) control group (business as usual). Kindergarten teachers implemented the interventions with support (for small group intensive work) by speech and language pathologists, over a period of three months (22 hours total). Participating children were assessed on vocabulary, letter-word identification, PA, and MA in kindergarten (before and after the intervention) and in grade one, and on reading comprehension in grade one only. Repeated ANOVAS indicated that children receiving the combined intervention outperformed children in the PA only intervention on vocabulary and reading comprehension and the control group in MA and reading. Findings suggest that the combined intervention was the most effective. These findings have theoretical implications for a more comprehensive developmental model of reading in Spanish, as well as practical implications for teaching and assessment of literacy skills in young, monolingual Spanish-speaking children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds.
