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This study investigated the influence of teaching letter names and sounds in isolation or in the context of storybook reading on preschool children's early literacy learning and engagement during instruction. Alphabet instruction incorporated paired associate learning of correspondences between letter names and sounds. In Decontextualized treatment activities, children practiced saying the letter names and sounds that matched printed single letters presented on cards and in letter books, and speeded recognition of taught letters. In Contextualized treatment activities, letter names and sounds were taught and practiced during oral reading of storybooks, recognizing letters in children's printed names, and speeded recognition of taught letters in words. Subjects were 127 preschool children in five public schools with low-income eligibility thresholds, including 48 dual language learners (DLLs). Children were randomly assigned within classroom to small groups randomly assigned to one of the two treatments. Research assistants provided 10 weeks of instruction, 12-15 minutes/day, and four days/week. Both groups made significant growth from pretest to posttest on measures of alphabet learning and phoneme awareness. Children in the Decontextualized treatment small groups had significantly higher gains than children in the Contextualized treatment small groups on taught letter sounds and phonemic awareness measured by identification of initial sounds in spoken words. There were no treatment differences between DLL and non-DLL children. Children's engagement during instruction was significantly higher in the Decontextualized treatment. Findings support explicit decontextualized alphabet instruction emphasizing the relationship between verbal letter labels and letter forms that enlists PAL processes. [This paper is published in "Reading Research Quarterly."]

This study addressed two areas of inquiry: 1) the influence of enlisting three underlying cognitive learning processes (CLPs) in alphabet learning, and 2) order effects for letter name and letter sound instruction. Alphabet instruction was designed to enlist Paired Associate Learning (PAL) only, PAL plus Orthographic Learning (OL), or PAL plus Articulatory Learning (AL). Subjects were 94 preschool children in eight public preschool classrooms with low-income eligibility thresholds, including 35 dual language learners (DLLs). Children were randomly assigned within classroom to small groups that were randomly assigned to one of the three treatments, and one of two orders in which letter names and sounds were taught. Research assistants provided 10 weeks of instruction, 15 minutes/day, for four days/week. All children in the three treatments made significant growth from pretest to posttest on all measures of alphabet learning. Children in the PAL only condition had significantly higher gains than the sample average on four of five alphabet measures. Posthoc tests showed that PAL only significantly outperformed the other two conditions on four of the five measures, but only for native English-speaking children. No evidence of differences among treatments was found for DLL children. Additionally, there was no main effect for order of name or sound instruction, although teaching sounds before names was statistically significantly better in the PAL only treatment. Findings support explicit alphabet instruction emphasizing the relationship between verbal letter labels and letter forms that enlists PAL processes. [This paper will be published in "Reading Research Quarterly."]

This study investigated: 1) the influence of alphabet instructional content (letter names, letter sounds, or both) on alphabet learning and engagement of English only and dual language learner (DLL) children, and 2) the relation between children's initial status and growth in three underlying cognitive learning processes (paired-associate, articulation referencing, and orthographic learning) and growth in alphabet learning. Subjects were 83 preschool children in six public preschool classrooms with low-income eligibility thresholds, including 30 DLLs. Children were screened for alphabet knowledge and randomly assigned to small groups and one of four conditions: experimental letter names or letter sounds only, experimental letter names+sounds (LN+LS), or typical LN+LS. Research assistants provided nine weeks of instruction in each treatment, in 10-minute sessions, four days/week. Irrespective of language status, children in the four groups made significant growth from pretest to posttest on measures of alphabet learning. The single-focus letter name or letter sound conditions led to significantly greater growth on taught alphabet content. The experimental LN+LS condition led to greater growth in taught letter names and sounds content compared to the typical LN+LS condition. Pretest vocabulary and alphabet knowledge did not moderate growth, and only limited evidence of differential response to instruction among DLLs was found. Paired associate and articulation referencing learning processes were related to alphabetic growth. Engagement during learning was high in all four treatments. Findings support the benefits of explicit alphabet instruction that enlists cognitive learning processes required for alphabet learning. [This article was published in "Early Childhood Research Quarterly," v44 p257-274 3rd Quarter 2018.]

A study examined the degree to which children with limited English proficiency can benefit from English instruction in phonemic awareness and phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Subjects were 27 kindergarten children in a suburban northern California school--16 spoke Hmong as their primary language and the rest were monolingual English speakers. The comparison class consisted of 29 students, 17 of whom spoke Hmong as their primary language. Students in the intervention class received 20-minute lessons on both phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle four to five times a week for eight weeks. Literacy instruction in the comparison class included a daily alphabet song or chant. Results indicated that: (1) students in the intervention group significantly improved in rhyming, segmenting, and blending skills from pretest to posttest; (2) students in the intervention class outperformed their comparison class counterparts on the phonemic awareness measures but not the letter name and letter sound measures; (3) English learners in the intervention class scored significantly higher than the English learners in the comparison class on rhyming and blending; (4) no significant correlations between English oral proficiency and phonemic awareness performance were seen; and (5) students in all classes showed significant improvement in understanding the alphabetic principle. Findings suggest that the intervention instruction was particularly beneficial to English learners, and that English language learners who are at the very initial stages of English language acquisition and who are from very low socioeconomic status backgrounds can learn phonemic awareness through explicit instruction. (Contains 21 references, and two tables and three figures of data.) (RS)

Examines the influence of letter-name instruction in beginning word recognition. Children who received letter-name instruction learned words phonetically spelled with letters included in instruction significantly better than other words. Children receiving comprehension instruction performed significantly better on visually distinct word spellings. Results demonstrate the beneficial effects of alphabet-letter instruction on beginning phonetic word recognition. (Contains 53 references and 4 tables.) (GCP)