Play Reading in Vocabulary Acquisition of Pre-School Children

Introduction

Reading aloud from storybooks and giving life to the characters

in the stories - or playing with these characters - is slowly gaining acceptance

in the Philippines as a way to introduce students to the pleasures of reading

books. Excellent reasons abound as to why there should be a good

Childrens Literature curriculum in the school setting. Childrens Literature is one

way of providing a range of experiences that enables children to develop and

discover language and how to live their own stories. They begin to connect

the stories they read in books with the stories of their lives. As such, Childrens

Literature can be valuable in

many ways for early childhood (development) literacy programs.

Barrentine (1996) describes Play Reading as an interactive process and

strategy in teaching children to become familiar with different words that

would manifest in their vocabulary. Most recently, the purpose of reading aloud has

expanded to include instructional purposes such as developing comprehension

and critical thinking skills, vocabulary and concept development, and decoding.

Birkerts (1999) strongly holds the belief that reading is a primary shaping

influence; that it exerts its greatest formative effects in the earliest stages but

remains a vital factor throughout development. He notes that our earliest reading

experiences are generally that of being read to. While being read to is quite different

from self-directing reading, its

influence as a precursive event is substantial and needs to be considered. Being read to

is more than any later reading engagement can be, a complete environmental experience.

The parent or guardian is in a close, safety-inspiring physical proximity; the child is the

focus of all attention; the story is served up with all the nuances of inflection, is spun

in a personalized way toward the listener.

Play reading brings a distinctive kind of richness to childrens literature experience.

Familiar and favorite books shared as oral stories provide an avenue for expanding

young childrens language and increasing their story comprehension. Because language is an

interactive process, children learning a language need ample opportunity to interact in a

meaningful, interesting context and play with language while developing their vocabulary and

its structures. Collaboration of their peers and teachers create meaningful context as they

negotiate meaning in those contexts.

To be able to take full advantage of utilizing an effective way of developing vocabulary,

one needs to consider the extent of efficiency of such method. Keeping that in mind, one can

just imagine the potentials of play reading in creating an environment of learning that is not

only enjoyable to the learners but will also provide a remarkable alternative for vocabulary

acquisition.

Background of the Study

Pre-school education is the best place for kids to gain basic lessons in life. Playing as

part of the learning process is the current philosophy in early childs educational experience.

Play is important because it allows children to interact with and explore the
environment. It also encourages children to use their imaginations to create and discover new

things about themselves and the world around them. Finally, play challenges children to take

risks that will add to their understanding of the world.

Maria Montessori, an Italian educationist during the early 1900s, postulated that play

is the childs work. According to the Montessori Method which is still employed today in

private schools, children would be best served spending their play time learning or imagining.

Montessori play is sensory, using hands on approach to everyday tools like sand tables. The

child sets his or her own pace, and the teacher is collaborative in helping the child play to learn.

The teacher plays an important role in utilizing different strategies in teaching

vocabulary lessons, since preschoolers learn best while playing. David Burchfield (2010)

discussed the role of teachers in early childhood, stressing that teachers need adequate time to

focus on and interact personally with the children and families. If teachers are unable to spend

time interacting with individual children, the benefits of their expertise is limited.

Dell Hymes(1981) recommends that children should have two classrooms: one indoor

and one outdoor. The outdoor play environment should be used as an extension of the indoor

play classrooms. It should be a learning environment, as carefully planned as the indoor activity

center. It should encourage motor and social skills as well as help children refine existing

cognitive structures and construct new ones. Since there have been limited space and resources

here in our country, Filipino teachers should be adaptive to the environment and be creative in

utilizing different strategies to meet the childrens needs for the improvement of the latters

learning.

Building and extending of vocabulary is another function of literature in the

language curriculum. Old familiar words take on new meanings as they reflect the content of

each different story. Children love new words and they do not necessarily need them defined.

When used correctly in the context of the storyline, the words will become self-explanatory.
Many children memorize phrases from their favorite books, sometimes unaware of their

meaning, but fitting the rhythm and pattern into their play. Language and vocabulary come alive

with such repetition, as children integrate the words into their play (Gordon and Browne,

Beginnings and Beyond, Foundations in Early Childhood Education,1993).

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read. As beginning readers, children

use the words they have heard to make sense of the words they see in print. Words help students

read, learn and understand their world. The larger their vocabularies, the better able they are to

learn and do. In addition, vocabulary is also very important to reading comprehension. Readers

cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As

children learn to read more advanced texts, they must also learn the meaning of new words that

are not part of their oral vocabulary (National Institute for Literacy, 2007).

According to Francie Alexander (2008), current Chief Academic Officer of Scholastic

Inc. and Senior Vice President of Scholastic Education, there are three reasons why vocabulary

is critical to reading success. The first is that comprehension improves when one knows what

the words mean. Since comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, one cannot overestimate

the importance of vocabulary development. The second reason is, words are the currency of

communication. A robust vocabulary improves all

areas of communication listening, speaking, reading and writing. And the last point is when

children and adolescents improve their vocabulary their academic and social confidence and

competence improve too.

A growing number of researchers (Beck and McKeown 2007; Schwanenflugel et al.

2005; Wasik and Bond 2001) have capitalized on storybook reading to advance vocabulary

instruction, extending vocabulary teaching beyond the event itself. Wasik and Bond (2001)

and, later, Wasik, Bond, and Hindman (2006)shared target words with children before and after

reading. Prior to reading a story, the teacher presented the children with concrete objects
representing the words and with word definitions. Throughout the week, the teacher read two

books containing the target words several times. The teacher also encouraged the children to

use the target words throughout the week by interacting with the objects. The results showed

that the children made expressive- and receptive-vocabulary gains on the target words and

general gains on a standardized test of receptive vocabulary. Similarly, Beck and McKeown

(2007) found significant effects when they included exposure to and discussion of target

vocabulary after storybook reading. Instruction followed a protocol that included

contextualizing the target words roles in the story, presenting child friendly definitions and

explanations, having children repeat the words, discussing multiple contexts in which the word

could be used, constructing examples, and reinforcing the pronunciations and definitions of the

words. Even stronger effects were found when the frequency and duration of this instruction

were increased.

The research, then, suggests that vocabulary instruction should promote growth in

young childrens vocabularies by (1) increasing the frequency with which words are

encountered through repetition during storybook readings and during additional activities,

including activities before and after the readings; (2) providing explicit instructions with direct

explanations of the meanings of the words; (3) using interactive reading styles; and (4)

increasing the contexts in which children are exposed to new words in meaningful ways.

These early vocabulary teaching strategies were mostly developed in a storybook-

reading context. Play, which has been viewed as an essential part of early-childhood

curriculum, has hardly been considered as a way to teach vocabulary.

The relationship between play and literacy has been much studied (Yaden, Rowe, and

MacGillivray 2000). Researchers found that play is an ideal way to support childrens emergent

literacy and that play enhances childrens narrative abilities (Ilgaz and Aksu-Ko 2005) by

scaffolding to more developed narrative production; preschoolers use complex mental-state

verbs such as say, talk, tell, write, and explain when they are engaged in make-believe play.

There are notes that three-year-olds talking more in pretend play was associated positively with

the size of their vocabularies when they began kindergarten two years later. The advanced

language capabilities that emerge in play offer not only a window into childrens growing

competencies but also a link to their literacy. Singer and colleagues (2006) wrote that play is

crucial for oral language skills, which is the basis for later reading skills, and that children learn

best through playful, guided interactions. Specially guided interactions with adults in playful

contexts increase childrens vocabularies (Roskos, Tabors, and Lenhart 2009). Hence, there is

a strong warrant in play to support vocabulary development in young children. Numerous

studies reported the benefits of learning literacy through play (Bellin and Singer 2006; Christie

and Roskos 2006; and Christie 2001). These studies found that childrens literacy knowledge

and behavior increase in literacy-enriched play settings and that adults involvement in play

increases the amount of literacy activities (Bellin and Singer 2006; Han 2009). Adults should

assume a variety of roles when interacting with children such as onlooker, coplayer, or,

sometimes, play leader. When the adults draw childrens attention to the literacy in the play,

childrens abilities to recognize literacy is enhanced. This kind of guided play is a blend of play

and academic learning (Roskos et al. 2004). As we already mentioned, within guided play,

teachers are goal oriented, but they should remain sensitive and responsive to the childrens

behaviors. Neuman and Roskos (1992, 1993) report that playful learning with adultsof which

guided play is one typecontributes to the acquisition of literacy skills. Literacy embedded in

playful contexts is learned better and faster.

This study focused particularly on the use of Childrens Literature in the acquisition of

vocabulary among young learners. Stories that were deemed captivating for both students and

the teachers were used to develop process skills and essential knowledge in children. Listening

to or play reading a good book allows all of us - young and old alike - to think, reason, solve
problems, compare and contrast, critique and communicate, both in old and new ways. The

researcher of this study wanted to believe that employing play reading would make a

difference.

It is a known fact that one of the most significant problems in preparatory and public

elementary schools is the improvement of the quality of instruction and the strategies utilized

by the teachers, but such improvements in instruction quality and strategies are measured upon

the childrens ability to read and comprehend various printed materials.

In this study, the researcher was encouraged to study the effectiveness of employing

play reading in the vocabulary acquisition of preparatory school pupils.