What could account for the difference in vocabulary gain among immigrant children when the teacher read the story?
How was the study carried out? Four schools were selected for the study, two of which had a mostly native Dutch population, and two whose children were predominantly from an immigrant background – the largest ethnic groups being Turkish (18 children) and Moroccan (6 children). All of the children listened to two stories, one read by a teacher and one by a computer. The stories themselves were approximately 300 words long, and were illustrated. The teacher read the story the way she normally would, interacting with the children. After the story was told the children were tested individually. When the children listened to the story on the computer, they were prompted to answer a question by clicking on the screen. Once this was done, the next sequence of the story began. The children underwent a vocabulary test one week before each reading. This made up the pre-test. Once they had heard the story the children were assessed for their understanding of the vocabulary as well as for general
