The effects of content-related shared book reading on the language development of preschool dual language learners

Modeling Floor Effects in Standardized Vocabulary Test Scores in a Sample of Low SES Hispanic Preschool Children under the Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling Framework

“…The study had three aims: (a) to examine floor effects in data from a the pre-test administration of the PPVT-4 (Dunn and Dunn, 2007 ) and the EVT-2 (Williams, 2007 ) test scores in a sample of low SES Mexican-American DLL preschool children (Pollard-Durodola et al, 2016 ), (b) to examine the impact of floor effects on evaluating the pre- post-test performance on receptive and expressive vocabulary outcomes as measured by the PPVT-4 and the EVT-2 (Pollard-Durodola et al, 2016 ), and (c) to evaluate the impact of floor effects on estimating parameters, standard errors, and significant tests through Monte Carlo simulations. Different analytical approaches were compared in response to different levels of floor data in the outcome variable in the multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) framework, which is viewed as a more general framework to analyze multilevel data.…”

“…Given evidence of low standardized vocabulary tests scores from some cultural and linguistically diverse groups, this study highlighted the potential issue of floor effects. In summary, the aim of this empirical example was 2-fold: (a) to establish the existence of floor effects on the PPVT-4 and the EVT-2 test scores in a sample of low SES Mexican-American preschool children who were dual language learners (DLLs) (Pollard-Durodola et al, 2016 ), and (b) to investigate the impact of floor effects on examining the PPVT-4 and the EVT-2 pre- to post-test scores comparison with respect to the sample's vocabulary growth (Pollard-Durodola et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Eighty-seven percent of parents of preschoolers reported that Spanish was the primary language spoken at home while 8% reported speaking English in the home and 5% reported using both languages. All children were identified as Spanish-speaking children while learning English as a second language (Pollard-Durodola et al, 2016 ). Based on the student performance on the pre LAS® English (DeAvila and Duncan, 2000 ), all preschoolers were at the pre-functional and beginning level for their English language proficiency.…”

“…One of the biggest challenges is establishing the appropriateness of these measures with non-English or non-standard English speaking children as often they score one to two standard deviations below expected levels (e.g., Lonigan et al, 2013 ). This study re-examines the issues in analyzing the PPVT-4 and EVT-2 scores in a sample of 4-to-5-year-old low SES Hispanic preschool children who were part of a larger randomized clinical trial on the effects of a supplemental English shared-reading vocabulary curriculum (Pollard-Durodola et al, 2016 ). It was found that data exhibited strong floor effects and the presence of floor effects made it difficult to differentiate the invention group and the control group on their vocabulary growth in the intervention.…”

Shared Book Reading and English Learners’ Narrative Production and Comprehension

“…Moreover, there is mounting evidence that similar shared‐book‐reading strategies are effective for ELs and English‐only students, including engaging in rich discussions around text. In a study of an interactive‐style shared‐book‐reading intervention, Pollard and colleagues (Pollard‐Durodola et al., ) found that engaging ELs in rich discussions around text promoted their vocabulary learning in English. That is, in comparison with ELs exposed to business‐as‐usual shared reading in their preschool classrooms, the ELs who had received the shared‐Book‐reading intervention made significantly greater gains on researcher‐developed vocabulary measures at posttest (see Spycher, ).…”