Journal article
Effectiveness of a small‐group vocabulary intervention programme: evidence from a regression discontinuity design
- Abstract:
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Background Children's vocabulary knowledge is closely related to other measures of language development and to literacy skills and educational attainment.
Aim To use a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to evaluate the effectiveness of a small‐group vocabulary intervention programme for children with poor vocabulary knowledge.
Methods & Procedures The vocabulary knowledge of children (N = 199) aged 6–9 years was assessed in six classes. Based on scores at the initial assessment, children with low vocabulary scores for their age were assigned to an intervention group (43 children), with the remaining 156 children assigned to a control group. Children in the intervention group received two to three small‐group weekly teaching sessions over a 10‐week period. All children were retested post‐intervention on the same measures of vocabulary knowledge.
Outcomes & Results The intervention group showed significant improvements in their knowledge of the meanings of the taught words at post‐test (an additional 3.95 words learned [95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.70–5.20] compared with the control group; d = 1.20), but the effects did not generalize to untaught words.
Conclusions & Implications A small‐group vocabulary intervention programme is effective for teaching word meanings to 6–9‐year‐old children with poor vocabulary skills. This study provides further evidence that the RDD is an effective method for evaluating educational interventions.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 332.6KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1111/1460-6984.12404
Authors
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Journal:
- International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders More from this journal
- Volume:
- 53
- Issue:
- 5
- Pages:
- 947-958
- Publication date:
- 2018-06-07
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-05-06
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1460-6984
- ISSN:
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1368-2822
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:920847
- UUID:
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uuid:1a1aff0f-484e-4271-920a-02a2b9c9616a
- Local pid:
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pubs:920847
- Source identifiers:
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920847
- Deposit date:
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2018-11-05
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- © 2018 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Wiley at: 10.1111/1460-6984.12404
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