Little evidence exists on how best to support children’s alphabet knowledge, which is a foundational early literacy skill. In this study, we investigated the impact of multisensory alphabet instruction on the alphabet learning of English monolingual and emergent bilingual (EB) children aged 3:5 to 5 years old, compared to visual-auditory alphabet instruction (i.e., featuring visual and auditory modalities, which are typically present in alphabet instruction). We also investigated whether children’s language status, either EB or not EB, moderated the impact of multisensory alphabet instruction. We utilize a rigorous within-subjects experimental research design. Thirty-six children were enrolled in the study and received 1:1 alphabet instruction on two sets of four letters, either using a multisensory or visual-auditory approach, with a final set of four letters as a control. Findings revealed that young children benefited from explicit and systematic alphabet instruction, whether multisensory or visual-auditory, in terms of improving their lowercase letter knowledge. EB and English monolingual children experienced a similar benefit from alphabet instruction, perhaps because they had similar socio-economic status and language backgrounds. In using an experimental design and strong counterfactual, this study contributes to the literature concerning understanding effective evidence-based practices to promote English monolingual and EB children’s alphabet knowledge.

中文翻译：

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针对英语单语和新兴双语儿童的多感官字母教学的初始但严格的测试

关于如何最好地支持儿童的字母知识，几乎没有证据，而字母知识是一项基本的早期识字技能。在这项研究中，我们调查了多感官字母教学对 3：5 至 5 岁英语单语和新兴双语 （EB） 儿童字母学习的影响，与视觉听觉字母教学（即，具有视觉和听觉模式，通常存在于字母教学中）相比。我们还调查了儿童的语言状态（EB 或非 EB）是否调节了多感官字母教学的影响。我们采用严格的受试者内实验研究设计。36 名儿童参加了这项研究，并接受了两组四个字母的 1：1 字母教学，使用多感官或视觉听觉方法，最后一组四个字母作为对照。研究结果显示，幼儿从显性和系统的字母教学中受益，无论是多感官还是视觉听觉，都有助于提高他们的小写字母知识。EB 和英语单语儿童从字母教学中获得了相似的好处，这可能是因为他们具有相似的社会经济地位和语言背景。通过使用实验设计和强大的反事实，本研究有助于有关理解有效的循证实践以促进英语单语和 EB 儿童字母知识的文献。