A Thematic Curriculum: Effectiveness in Teaching Spanish to Preschoolers
This research investigates how effective a thematic curriculum in Spanish is when used with preschoolers. A total of four children between two and three years old participated in the program. Children have varying degrees of exposure to Spanish prior to program entry. The program extended over a seven-week period and children attended two days a week for two hours each day. Videotapes were made of all sessions. Spanish was taught through group activities in art, music, dramatic play, storytelling, and reading picture books. Videotapes were examined and observations of these tapes provided an opportunity to examine language processes and strategies used by normal language learners. One measure of curricula effectiveness was number of new Spanish vocabulary words produced.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
Spanish
Research Advisor:
Adele Proctor
Department of Research Advisor:
Speech and Hearing Science
Year of Publication:
2002