COLLTS: A Promising Interactive Read-Aloud Intervention for Three-Year-Old Dual-Language Learners

Abstract

AbstractThe goal of this pilot study was to test a bilingual interactive read-aloud intervention designed to develop the oral language proficiency of three-year-old dual language learners (DLLs). The eight-week intervention—Cultivating Oral Language and Literacy Talent in Students (COLLTS)—was aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and consisted of evidence-based instructional methods; resources for teachers and students that supported teachers in enacting these methods; professional development related to the methods and resources; and family literacy activities. Control teachers were given the same books as the treatment teachers to read to their students but were not provided with all of the professional development and any of the other COLLTS resources. The study was implemented in 22 classrooms in seven Head Start centers in a large city in the southern United States. Data were collected to assess students’ language outcomes, teacher fidelity, and family participation. Findings indicated gains on a short receptive measure of instructed vocabulary, but no significant differences between treatment and control DLLs on that measure. Findings also indicated significantly greater gains for treatment DLLs compared with control DLLs in semantic knowledge measured by oral narrative retellings coded using language sample analysis; high levels of parent involvement and family satisfaction; and significantly greater gains in student’s vocabulary knowledge for more engaged treatment families.