The Effect of Online Bilingual Shared Book Reading on Vocabulary Learning for Korean-English Bilingual Children

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a bilingual shared book reading intervention on vocabulary learning for Korean-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Methods: A total of 16 Korean-English bilingual children aged 4-6 (9 typically developing children and 7 children with DLD) participated in this study. Participants participated in a bilingual shared book reading intervention using bridging to L1 techniques twice a week for 3 weeks, for a total of 6 sessions. Korean, English, and conceptual receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and expressive definitions were assessed at pre and post tests to examine the effect of the intervention on vocabulary learning. Results: First, there was a statistically significant increase between pre-test and post-test results on all measures of Korean, English, and conceptually scored receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and expressive definitions for typically developing children. Second, there was a statistically significant increase between pre-test and post-test results on measures of Korean receptive vocabulary, English receptive and expressive vocabulary, and conceptually scored receptive and expressive vocabulary for children with DLD. Conclusion: These results provide preliminary evidence that bilingual shared book reading is an effective method of vocabulary intervention for Korean-English bilingual children with and without DLD.