Grant Closed

Academic Language and Writing for Children in Kindergarten to Fourth Grade—A Longitudinal Study

NCER

Program: Education Research Grants

Program topic(s): Literacy

Award amount: $1,600,000

Principal investigator: Young-Suk Kim

Awardee:

University of California, Irvine

Year: 2013

Project type:

Exploration

Award number: R305A160408

Purpose

Writing is an important skill for communication and self-expression in school and in the workforce, but the majority of students in the United States do not write at a proficient level. Some research has suggested that early precursors to writing may be identifiable, and theory suggests oral language may be one such precursor. However, there has been very little systematic examination of association between oral language and writing development. Further, academic (or decontextualized) language may be an important skill for writing development but this also has not been examined. The goals of this exploration study were to: (1) examine the dimensionality of oral language to investigate whether academic language is a discrete construct; (2) explore the development of oral language skills and writing skills from kindergarten through fourth grade; (3) investigate how oral language skills are related to writing; and (4) examine the existence of oral language and writing skill profiles.

Project Activities

In the first part of this study, 300 kindergarten, second-, and fourth-grade students participated in an evaluation study to identify and refine measures of academic language skills and to examine the factor structure of oral language. The second part of the study used a cohort-sequential design to follow two groups of 300 students: the first group was assessed in kindergarten, first, and second grades; and the second group was assessed in second, third, and fourth grades. A variety of writing, reading, and oral language assessments were administered to students for both parts of the study, with students in the longitudinal part receiving assessments twice per year.

Structured Abstract

Setting

This study was conducted in a large, urban school district in north Florida.

Sample

Participants included approximately 900 children in kindergarten through fourth grade. For the Year 1 evaluation study, 100 students in each of kindergarten, second, and fourth grade (300 total) participated. For the cohort-sequential study, 264 kindergarteners and 165 second-grade students were recruited in Year 2 and followed for 2 years.

Intervention

In this exploratory study, the researchers examined the development of oral language, academic language, and writing skills from kindergarten through fourth grade, to identify possible targets for intervention at the instructional level. The findings from the proposed study provided critical information about the dimensionality of oral language and the associations between oral language and writing skill over time.

Research design and methods

To assess the dimensionality of oral language skills and to explore whether academic language is a discreet concept, researchers administered a battery of oral language, writing, and reading assessments to 300 total students in kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade (100 students per grade). To assess the development of oral language skills and writing, researchers gathered student assessment data two times a year (fall and spring) from two cohorts of students. The first cohort was assessed in kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade; and the second cohort in second, third, and fourth grade. Measures included assessments on oral language skills, academic language skills, reading comprehension, and writing skills including transcription and comprehension.

Control condition

Due to the nature of the research design, there was no control condition.

Key measures

Researchers assessed students' oral language, academic language, reading, and writing skills. General oral language skills were assessed with the Sentence Comprehension, Receptive Vocabulary, Expressive Vocabulary, and Visual Passage Retell subtests of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test—3rd Edition (WIAT-III), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—4th Edition (PPVT-4), the Expressive Vocabulary Test—2nd Edition (EVT-2), the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals—4th Edition (CELF) Formulated Sentences task for receptive and productive modes, and the Test of Narrative Language (TNL). Academic language were assessed by coding the academic language features (e.g., lexical density, embedded clauses, etc.) of the oral language production tasks (CELF Formulated Sentences; WIAT-III Visual Passage Retell; TNL), and by using definition and picture description tasks. Reading assessments included the Word Reading subtest of the WIAT-III, the Sight Word Efficiency subtest of the Test of Word Reading Efficiency—2nd Edition (TOWRE-2), the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC), and the Reading Comprehension subtest of the Gates-MacGinintie Reading Tests—4th Edition. Writing assessments included the Alphabet Writing, Spelling, and Paragraph Writing subtests of the WIAT-III, and a sentence copying task.

Data analytic strategy

A variety of analytic methods were used to examine the data for this study. Researchers will be using structural equation modeling (SEM) as the primary analytical strategy. Specifically, to assess the dimensionality of oral language skills, the researchers used SEM to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. To assess trajectories of skills, the researchers used a multiple indicator growth model to assess the development of oral language, academic language, and writing skills from kindergarten through fourth grade. The associations between these trajectories and possible moderators was also analyzed using multiple indicator growth models. Finally, exploration of possible subgroups of children based on profiles of skills was analyzed using finite mixture modeling.

Key outcomes

Using the data from the project, the project team proposed and validated four integrative theoretical models, each for discourse comprehension, reading, writing, and reading-writing relations.

People and institutions involved

IES program contact(s)

Elizabeth Albro

Commissioner of Education Research

NCER

Products and publications

ERIC Citations: Publications in ERIC are available here.

Select Publications:

Cho, M., & Kim, Y. S. G. (2024). Examining linguistic and discourse features in oral text production and their dimensionality. First Language, 44(2), 153-172.

Cho, M., & Kim, Y. S. G. (2023). Do second graders adjust their language by discourse context?. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(2), 569-583.

Kim, Y. S. G. (2024). Writing fluency: Its relations with language, cognitive, and transcription skills, and writing quality using longitudinal data from kindergarten to grade 2. Journal of Educational Psychology, 116(4), 590.

Kim, Y.-S. G. (2023). Learning to read and write. In R. J Tierney, F. Rizvi, and K. Ercikan, (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (Fourth Edition), (pages 335-343). Elsevier.

Kim, Y.-S. G. (2022). Do written language bursts mediate the relations of language, cognitive, and transcription skills to writing quality?. Written Communication, 39(2), 200-227.

Kim, Y. S. G. (2022). Co-occurrence of reading and writing difficulties: The application of the interactive dynamic literacy model. Journal of learning disabilities, 55(6), 447-464.

Kim, Y.-S. G. (2020). Interactive dynamic literacy model: An integrative theoretical framework for reading and writing relations. In R. Alves, T. Limpo, & M. Joshi (Eds.), Reading-writing connections: Towards integrative literacy science. Netherlands: Springer.

Kim, Y. S. G. (2020). Toward integrative reading science: The direct and indirect effects model of reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 53(6), 469-491.

Kim, Y. S. G. (2020). Structural relations of language and cognitive skills, and topic knowledge to written composition: A test of the direct and indirect effects model of writing. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(4), 910-932.

Kim, Y. S. G. (2020). Theory of mind mediates the relations of language and domain-general cognitions to discourse comprehension. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 194, 104813.

Kim, Y.S.G. (2017). Multicomponent view of vocabulary acquistion: An investigation with primary grade children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 162, 120-133.

Kim, Y.-S. G. (2017). Why the simple view of reading is not simplistic: Unpacking the simple view of reading using a direct and indirect effect model of reading (DIER). Scientific Studies of Reading, 21, 310-333.

Kim, Y.S.G. (2016). Direct and Mediated Effects of Language and Cognitive Skills on Comprehension of Oral Narrative Texts (listening comprehension) for Children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 141, 101-120.

Kim, Y.S.G. (2016). Do Live Versus Audio-Recorded Narrative Stimuli Influence Young Children's Narrative Comprehension and Retell Quality?. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 47(1): 77-86.

Kim, Y. S. G., & Graham, S. (2022). Expanding the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (DIEW): Reading-writing relations, and dynamic relations as a function of measurement/dimensions of written composition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(2), 215.

Kim, Y.-S. G., & Park, S. (2019). Unpacking pathways using the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (DIEW) and the contributions of higher order cognitive skills to writing. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 32, 1319-1343.

Kim, Y. S. G., & Petscher, Y. (2023). Do Spelling and Vocabulary Improve Classification Accuracy of Children's Reading Difficulties Over and Above Word Reading?. Reading Research Quarterly, 58(2), 240-253.

Kim, Y. S. G., & Petscher, Y. (2021). Influences of individual, text, and assessment factors on text/discourse comprehension in oral language (listening comprehension). Annals of Dyslexia, 71(2), 218-237.

Kim, Y. S. G., and Phillips, B. (2016). Five Minutes a Day to Improve Comprehension Monitoring in Oral Language Contexts: An Exploratory Intervention Study With Prekindergartners From Low-Income Families. Topics in Language Disorders, 36(4), 356-367.

Kim, Y. S. G., and Pilcher, H. (2016). What Is Listening Comprehension and What Does It Take to Improve Listening Comprehension?. In R. Schiff and M. Joshi (Eds.), Interventions in Learning Disabilities (pp. 159-173). Springer International Publishing.

Kim, Y. S. G., and Schatschneider, C. (2017). Expanding the Developmental Models of Writing: A Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Developmental Writing (DIEW). Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(1): 35-50.

Kim, Y.-S. G., & Yun, J. (in press). Language learning and teaching for young children: Promoting interactive talk in the classroom. In V. Grøver, P. Uccelli, M. Rowe, & E. Lieven (Eds.), Learning through language: Towards an educationally

Kim, Y. S. G., Dore, R., Cho, M., Golinkoff, R., & Amendum, S. J. (2021). Theory of mind, mental state talk, and discourse comprehension: Theory of mind process is more important for narrative comprehension than for informational text comprehension. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209, 105181.

Kim, Y. S. G., Petscher, Y., Uccelli, P., & Kelcey, B. (2020). Academic language and listening comprehension-Two sides of the same coin? An empirical examination of their dimensionality, relations to reading comprehension, and assessment modality. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(7), 1367.

Quinn, J. M., Folsom, J. S., & Petscher, Y. (2018). Peer effects on vocabulary knowledge: A linear quantile mixed-modeling approach. Education Sciences, 8(4), 181.

Wang, J., Kim, Y. S. G., & Cho, M. (2024). Linguistic features in narrative and opinion genres and their relations to writing quality in fourth grade writing. Journal of Research in Reading.

Wawire, B., & Kim, Y.-S. G. (2018). Cross-language transfer of phonological awareness and letter knowledge: Causal evidence and nature of transfer. Scientific Studies of reading, 22 (6), 443-461.

Additional project information

Previous award details:

Previous award number:

R305A130131

Previous awardee:

Florida State University

Supplemental information

Co-Principal Investigators: Petscher, Yaacov; Schatschneider, Christopher

For discourse comprehension, we proposed and validated the Direct and Indirect Effects model of Text comprehension (DIET) model (Kim, 2017; Kim & Schatschneider, 2017). In the DIET model, language and cognitive component skills of discourse comprehension such as working memory, vocabulary, and inference are classified into three categories: (1) foundational language and cognitive skills, including working memory, attentional control, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge; (2) higher order cognitive skills, including inference, perspective taking, and comprehension monitoring; and (3) discourse comprehension and production. These language and cognitive skills map onto the three different mental representations of discourse — surface code, textbase representation, and situation model; and have direct and indirect relations to discourse comprehension and production. The DIET model consolidates and integrates evidence from the literature on language and cognitive component skills of discourse comprehension with theories of discourse comprehension (e.g., the construction integration model), and describes theoretically-informed structural relations among component skills.
Moreover, these component skills of discourse comprehension are related to literacy outcomes such as reading comprehension (Direct and Indirect Effects model of Reading [DIER], Kim, 2017) and written composition (Direct and Indirect Effects model of Writing [DIEW], Kim & Schatschneider, 2017). These results advance our understanding by integrating evidence from disparate lines of work, and showing mechanisms and pathways by which component skills are related to reading and writing, respectively.
Another important aspect of the DIER and DIEW is that they show mechanisms and pathways of component skills to reading and writing outcomes, and consequently reveal both direct and indirect effects. This is based on review of large bodies of evidence. For instance, although working memory did not have a direct effect on reading comprehension, its indirect effect via various pathways including word reading and listening comprehension was also sizable (.23; Kim, 2017).
Finally, we have proposed and tested an integrative theoretical model for reading-writing relations (Kim, 2020; Kim & Graham, 2022).

Although the relation between reading and writing has been recognized, the underlying cognitive and language mechanisms have not been specified. In the team's work, based on a review of theoretical models and literature on reading and writing, they proposed and validated an interactive dynamic model of literacy that includes both reading and writing.

Questions about this project?

To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.

Academic Language and Writing for Children in Kindergarten to Fourth Grade—A Longitudinal Study

Purpose

Project Activities

Structured Abstract

Setting

Sample

Research design and methods

Control condition

Key measures

Data analytic strategy

Key outcomes

People and institutions involved

IES program contact(s)

Elizabeth Albro

Products and publications

Additional project information

Previous award details:

Supplemental information

Questions about this project?

Questions about this project?

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