Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

delayed children (Crain-Thoreson & Dale, 1999). These techniques in particular may also
prove the most cost- and time-efficient techniques for increasing children‘s literacy skills
for several reasons. First, dialogic reading techniques have typically been implemented
during shared storybook reading, a commonplace practice within preschool contexts.
Further, research has demonstrated that teacher-child book reading contributes to
children‘s oral language development via teacher-child discourse (Makin, 2003) and that
Head Start teachers engaged children in richer and more sensitive and responsive
communication during book reading when compared with outer classroom activities (i.e.,
free play and meal time; Gest, Holland-Coviello, Welsh, Eicher-Catt, & Gill, 2006).
Thus, enhancing the common literacy practice of classroom storybook reading can help
teachers to enhance the development of oral language skills while providing them more
time and resources for implementing additional literacy programming to enhance
phonological processing skills and print knowledge, the remaining two of the three key
emergent literacy skills (Lonigan, 2006).
In summary, previous research has determined that dialogic reading techniques
are effective tools for increasing children‘s short-term vocabulary skills across varied
contexts and within populations of varying socio-economic status. Beyond their
versatility, dialogic reading techniques specifically target children‘s oral vocabulary
skills, emergent literacy skills that have been related to phonological awareness and
listening comprehension, that have been found to be predictive of reading comprehension
skills (Senechal et al., 2006), and that are prerequisites for reading ―grade level‖ books
(Biemiller, 2006). According to Biemiller (2006), much more time is dedicated to
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