The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of read aloud instruction on the vocabulary development of young English language learners and to compare the use of different types of text during read alouds. During the study, a read aloud intervention was implemented in a self contained bilingual kindergarten classroom. A vocabulary assessment instrument was administered before, during and after the intervention to measure the students' vocabulary development. It was hypothesized that, in terms of increasing the students' vocabulary knowledge, informational text would be more effective than fictional text and the combined use of informational and fictional text would be more effective than the use of only one type of text. It was also hypothesized that the students' receptive vocabulary would increase more than their expressive vocabulary as a result of the read aloud intervention. Results showed that informational text was more effective than fictional text in increasing the students' vocabulary, that a combined use of informational and fictional text was more effective in increasing receptive vocabulary but not expressive vocabulary and that receptive vocabulary knowledge increased more than expressive vocabulary knowledge during administration of the mid intervention assessment but not during the post intervention assessment.