Learning new words from an interactive electronic storybook intervention

Daleen Klop, Laurette Marais, Amanda Msindwana, Febe De Wet, Daleen Klop, Laurette Marais, Amanda Msindwana, Febe De Wet

Abstract

Background: Children who enter school with limited vocabulary knowledge are at risk for reading failure. This study investigated the efficacy of an interactive e-book, implemented as a mobile application, to facilitate vocabulary learning in Grade 1 isiXhosa-speaking children (n = 65).

Objective: The purpose was to measure if an e-book intervention, specifically developed for use in the South African context, could facilitate the acquisition and retention of new words at different levels of lexical representation.

Method: A randomised pre-test and/or post-test between-subject design was used where an experimental group that received the e-book intervention was compared to a control group before the control group received a delayed intervention. Follow-up testing was performed to measure retention of the new vocabulary after eight weeks. Mixed-model repeated-measure Analysis of Variance (ANOVAs) were used to determine differences between the participants in the experimental and control groups.

Results: The short-term e-book intervention not only facilitated fast-mapping of new words but enabled participants to develop more robust lexical representations of the newly acquired words. Follow-up assessment showed that they retained their newly acquired word knowledge.

Conclusion: Multimedia technology can be used to provide explicit and embedded vocabulary training to young children at risk for academic failure. These findings are particularly relevant for South African environments where there is limited parental support and lack of educational resources to promote vocabulary learning in young children.

Keywords: electronic storybook; multimedia intervention; vocabulary learning.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and not an official position of their institutions.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Screenshot of story on tablet.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Example of an interactive activity.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Assessment and intervention schedule.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Receptive vocabulary: Mean scores of participant groups for pre-, post- and follow-up assessment.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Expressive vocabulary: Mean scores of participant groups for pre-, post- and follow-up assessment of the sentence completion task.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Mean scores of participant groups for pre-, post- and follow-up assessment of the word definition task.

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Source: PubMed

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