Effect of oral academic narrative language intervention on listening comprehension and generalised word learning: A proof of concept study.

Purpose: Science of reading experts have called for increased attention on oral academic language. Interventions need to integrate multiple dimensions of academic language and word learning strategies to impact broader academic repertoires. The purpose of this proof-of-concept study was to examine the effect of an oral academic narrative language intervention, with embedded vocabulary instruction, on listening comprehension and generalised word learning.

Method: Twenty-two first graders at risk for language-based comprehension difficulties were randomly assigned to two groups. Research assistants delivered four 30 min, small group, academic language intervention sessions to the treatment group every week for 12 weeks. Control group students received their typical small group literacy interventions from classroom teachers. At pre-and post-test, first graders' narrative listening comprehension and ability to infer the meaning of words from story context were assessed.

Result: From pre- to post-test, students in the treatment group outperformed students in the control group on both the narrative retell (p = .0001) and vocabulary (p = .029) measures, with large effects (d = 1.54 and 1.18, respectively).

Conclusion: Vocabulary instruction embedded in narrative intervention can improve young students' ability to learn novel word meanings from context and listening comprehension skills. As a promising approach to integrating multiple aspects of oral academic language, further refinement and extensions are recommended.