The Feasibility of Language-Literacy Instruction Facilitated by Preschool Classroom Volunteers

Abstract

This pretest-posttest study examined the effects of a professional development training on five volunteer instructors’ (VI) utilization of language and literacy facilitation strategies within interactive storybook readings with low-income preschool children. The training specifically targeted the VIs' use of WH-questions, expansions, and references to story grammar elements (SGEs) with use of a corresponding visual aid. VIs participated in a three-hour training comprised of lecture, video models, role-playing, four opportunities to explicitly practice the target strategies, and four opportunities to receive immediate feedback from the investigator. The VIs led storybook readings that were video recorded for comparison prior to and after the training sessions (two pre-training, two post-training). The investigator analyzed the VIs’ language and literacy strategy usage in the readings. The investigator compared the raw number of WH-questions asked, expansions of child responses or comments, the number of references (out of 20) to SGEs and use of the visual aid pre- and post-training. Analysis revealed after the training, four of the five VIs increased the number of WH-questions asked during the reading and one VI maintained a large amount of questions asked when compared to pre-training readings. All VIs provided an increased number of references to story grammar elements (character, setting, problem, fixing problem, solution) in a variety of capacities (name, definition, book specific element, visual aid use) to reinforce the narrative concepts. VIs had less consistent increases in expansions of child responses or comments post-training. Results revealed the VIs generally increased their facilitation of language and literacy strategies after participating in a professional development training, suggesting utilization of volunteers as instructors may be a valuable area to explore, especially in low-income environments where children are at-risk for language and literacy delays in later schooling.