Leitura compartilhada de livros na educação infantil em contexto bilíngue.

Abstract

The present dissertation aimed to investigate the effects of shared book reading with children in early childhood education on vocabulary acquisition in an additional language within a bilingual education context. The participants were 55 bilingual children (Portuguese-English), aged between five and six years old, from a bilingual school in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Sociodemographic data were collected through a questionnaire that outlined the participants' profiles. For the shared reading intervention, children were divided into an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG), with three children's literature books used during the shared book reading sessions. The children's receptive vocabulary skills were assessed using an instrument adapted from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn, 2019), both before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the intervention. The analysis of the experimental research data was based on both quantitative and qualitative variables. The results indicate that shared reading interventions have a significant impact on additional language vocabulary acquisition for the EG children, with large effect sizes (d > 0.8), and a statistically significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores (p < 0.001). In the CG, the read-aloud strategy (LT) had no significant effect on vocabulary acquisition, with small effect sizes (d < 0.2). Although no significant differences were observed in the CG, small gains in vocabulary acquisition were evident when comparing pre and post-test stages. Based on these findings, we can affirm that shared book reading can substantially impact receptive vocabulary acquisition in an additional language. This study contributes to expanding the evidence on the positive effects of shared book reading for vocabulary acquisition in a bilingual context, especially at the national level. Additionally, the educational materials developed for each of the literature books used in the study can serve as a reference for educators aiming to enhance their practices and strategies before, during, and after shared book reading. Finally, this research can also serve as a valuable resource to expand educators' knowledge of bilingual language development.