Latent profiles of vocabulary and domain knowledge and their relation to listening comprehension in kindergarten

Background Vocabulary and domain knowledge are important factors that influence comprehension development. However, these factors have most frequently been examined in relation to reading comprehension and much less frequently examined in relation to listening comprehension. Moreover, almost no empirical studies have examined profiles of strengths and weaknesses in vocabulary and domain knowledge in students at the beginning of schooling. In the current study, we investigated different profiles (groups) of students regarding receptive and expressive vocabulary and science and social studies domain knowledge in the fall of kindergarten, as well as relations between the profiles and listening comprehension development throughout kindergarten. Method We analysed data collected from 629 kindergarten students living in two large urban districts in the United States by conducting a series of latent profile and chi‐square analyses. Results Latent profile analysis identified three groups of students that displayed distinct patterns of achievement in vocabulary and domain knowledge, namely, students whose scores on the four measures were below average (−1.6 standard deviations [SD]), average (−0.2 SD) and above average (0.8 SD). There was no group of students who displayed unbalanced achievement in vocabulary and domain knowledge at the beginning of schooling. In addition, statistically significant differences in listening comprehension development during kindergarten were observed for all pairwise comparisons across the groups. Conclusion The findings appear to indicate that students can acquire vocabulary to the extent that they develop domain knowledge and vice versa. The commensurate achievement might be due to mutually enhancing relations between vocabulary and domain knowledge. Moderate to large effect sizes on listening comprehension development when comparing the groups suggest the importance of supporting vocabulary and domain knowledge from the early grades.