The effectiveness of an interactive instructional context. Principles from the parent-child interaction literature

In the present study, the effectiveness of embedding a targeted linguistic structure within an interactive instructional context is examined. Ten subjects participated in a communication-games intervention which contained seven interactive elements drawn from the parent-child interaction literature. Ten subjects were assigned to a control group. A comparison of student performance before and after intervention supports the effectiveness of adopting instructional strategies that are consistent with a social-interaction perspective on language development. Qualitative results are presented that illustrate each of the interactional characteristics of the intervention. Implications for practice are discussed.