Abstract
In Australia, much emphasis in early childhood education is placed on the importance of supporting young children’s literacy development, and book-reading occurs frequently during typical early-childhood education and care programmes. Reading a story to a child presents an opportunity for rich language-learning through reciprocal and extended conversations that link the story to the child’s world, introduce new vocabulary and encourage extended thinking and articulation of this thinking. Dialogic reading is a particular approach to book-reading that encourages the child to engage actively with the story. This paper presents data in the form of excerpts from transcripts of two book-reading sessions with young children. A conversation-analytic approach was applied to reveal and deconstruct dialogic reading prompts that occur within the data, thus revealing the interactional phenomena underpinning the dialogic reading strategies observed in two different book-reading episodes. The implications for applying such strategies to support sustained dialogue during storybook-reading are discussed.
Keywords
Introduction
It is well established that literacy learning starts from birth as children interact with and contribute to their world. Literacy competence does not begin when children enter school, as the home-learning environment is the context in which children first acquire the literacy skills that equip them to make sense of, describe and participate in the world (Niklas and Schneider, 2013). Emergent literacy skills such as children’s vocabulary, phonological awareness and early letter knowledge are significant and specific predictors for literacy competencies in school (e.g. Näslund and Schneider, 1996; Schatschneider et al., 2004; Torgesen, 2002; Torppa et al., 2006).
In the model developed by Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998), emergent literacy skills are differentiated into outside-in processes (i.e. oral language skills such as vocabulary or conceptual knowledge) and inside-out processes (i.e. code-related skills such as phonological awareness or syntactic structure). The two processes are closely interrelated, but oral language skills have an impact on code-related skills. Consequently, oral language skills may be regarded as primary abilities that should be targeted to support young children’s literacy development, as these abilities influence code-related skills which in turn influence later reading ability. However, there are no clear-cut borders between reading and its various precursors (Bowman et al., 2003) and children with strong early literacy skills tend to outperform children with weak early literacy skills on assessments of literacy ability later in school, and this gap appears to widen over time (Bast and Reitsma, 1998).
As children proceed through formal school education, strong literacy skills become increasingly important to navigate an education environment that is predominantly literacy-based. The transmission of information is both verbal and written, and in order to achieve academic success, children must demonstrate strong verbal communication skills as well as strong reading and writing skills. The volume of text increases as children move into the higher grades of school. Most school assessment is literacy-based; concessions made to assist children who find reading and writing challenging still require strong verbal communication skills. Later in life, strong literacy skills are associated with higher income, better job prospects, employment, lower risk of mental illnesses and better health overall (Fawcett, 2003; Lyon, 2002), and small gains in literacy competence have been associated with significant improvements in several areas of life (Dugdale and Clark, 2008). This highlights the important role to be played by early childhood educators in supporting early literacy skills.
Although research indicates that whilst adults often engage in emergent literacy behaviours such as reading with young children (e.g. Edwards, 2014), there is much variability in the way that adults read to children. One approach that has been shown to be successful in supporting young children’s emerging literacy skills is the dialogic reading approach in which the story itself is used as a springboard for adult–child dialogue and extended thinking. The dialogic reading approach is based on three key principles: encouraging children’s extended thinking and articulation of their thoughts, providing feedback to the child and tailoring questioning and feedback in order to meet and increase the child’s evolving abilities (Whitehurst et al., 1988). In this study, we take a new approach as we were interested in uncovering the precise components of the dialogic prompts that are effective in generating children’s contingent responses. Applying a fine-grained conversation-analytic approach enables us to identify the mechanics of the interactional phenomena that arise during these episodes. Exploring the details of classroom interactions is illuminative (Lefstein et al., 2015) and it is the detailed analysis of talk-in-interaction that reveals precisely how dialogic reading strategies during storybook reading facilitate children’s extended thinking, sustained conversation and exposure to new words. Finally, the importance of early childhood educators purposefully implementing dialogic reading strategies will be discussed.
Dialogic reading to extend emergent literacy
Literacy includes meaning-making through oral and symbolic communication. It is facilitated through multiple modalities: gesture, the spoken word, written text and the arts, and it is inherently ‘socially constructed and situated’ (Diaz, 2002: 32). The ability to read and write letters, with comprehension, is the platform for success in formal education.
Exposure to books supports vocabulary acquisition and, in turn, supports learning to read (Bus et al., 1995; Harper et al., 2011). Books typically contain wider vocabulary than common-usage vocabulary in conversation (Sulzby, 1985) and children’s vocabulary when starting school predicts both word-reading ability at the end of the first year of school and reading comprehension in later years (Juel, 2006). However, the acquisition of vocabulary from books requires intensive support from adults, and learning is facilitated by the social interaction that takes place around book-reading (Mol et al., 2008).
Dialogic reading is a book-reading approach that positions the child as the teller of the story and the adult as the person who listens. It is based upon the premise that children learn to read when they are actively involved in the book-reading process, rather than being passive listeners. Evidence of the positive impact of this approach on children’s emerging literacy skills was first presented in the late 1980s (Whitehurst et al., 1988). In dialogic reading, the adult uses five key prompts to facilitate children’s engagement with a book (United States Department of Education, 2006). First, the adult encourages the child to complete the blank at the end of a sentence when the adult pauses in a meaningful manner. This is known as a completion prompt. Second, the adult asks questions about the book in order to encourage the child to recall and retell the story. This is known as a recall prompt. The third prompt, an open-ended prompt, involves the adult asking open-ended questions to encourage dialogue during the reading of a story. The fourth prompt, referred to as the Wh- prompt, is the asking of what, why, when and where questions in order to expand the child’s thinking. Finally, the adult provides a distancing prompt by linking the pictures and the associated vocabulary with the child’s personal lived experience. This approach provides opportunities for questioning that encourage children to engage in ‘rich and complex’ thinking using the content of the story as the platform for back-and-forth dialogues between educator and child (Doyle and Bramwell, 2006: 556) and creates opportunities for the incorporation and explanation of advanced language.
Empirical testing of the dialogic reading approach has found it to have positive effects on children’s expressive vocabulary skills (Hargrave and Sénéchal, 2000; Lonigan et al., 1999; Lonigan and Whitehurst, 1998; Opel et al., 2009; Sim and Berthelsen, 2014; Wasik and Bond, 2001; Whitehurst et al., 1988), even in a ‘low-literacy and low-resource environment’ (Vally, 2012: 623). The dialogic reading approach also has positive effects on concepts of print (Whitehurst et al., 1994), early reading and writing (Whitehurst et al. 1994), fictional narrative construction knowledge (Lever and Sénéchal, 2011) and rhyme awareness (Sim and Berthelsen, 2014). In addition, Huebner (2000) showed that when local librarians taught parents the dialogic reading approach, this resulted not only in improved parental reading styles and children’s expressive vocabulary in comparison to a control group, but reports of reduced parental stress.
Meta-analyses indicate that literacy interventions are successful in enhancing children’s comprehension-related and code-related skills as well as spelling ability (Sénéchal and Young, 2008; van Steensel et al., 2011). The mean-effect size for a specific comparison of dialogic reading-intervention groups and reading-as-usual groups in 16 intervention studies was d = .42, indicating a medium effect for this particular approach (Mol et al., 2008).
The benefits of a dialogical reading approach are thus well established. In this paper, we illuminate precisely how dialogic reading prompts operate to support children’s literacy learning by applying a conversation analytic lens to examine two book-reading episodes. Although the selection of a text, the particular children in the event, and the origin and timing of story-reading events within early childhood settings play a part in the way teachers and children engage, our purpose here is to mark the presence and component constructs of dialogic reading strategies within two book-reading episodes as a step towards purposefully incorporating such interactional phenomena and better informing effective reading practices.
Conversation analysis (CA)
CA focuses on human social interaction and has grown over the last 40 years to become a key methodology in the disciplines of Sociology, Linguistics and Communication (Sidnell and Stivers, 2013). Data take the form of precise, detailed transcriptions of audio or video recordings of naturally occurring talk-in-interaction and are presented for examination using particular transcription conventions (see Appendix 1). The minute detail of CA transcription makes possible the investigation, analysis and explanation of turns taken by participants in the interaction. Sequences of authentic interaction are observed, rather than hypothetical interactions or role plays.
This methodology, developed by Harvey Sacks in collaboration with Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson, is based on the principle that talk-in-interaction is systematic, orderly and both ‘context-free’ and ‘context-sensitive’ (Sacks et al., 1974: 699). CA acknowledges that a conversation is always situated within a broader social situation and occurs between individuals; however, it is the characteristics of the interaction, rather than the characteristics of the individual participants in the conversation, that are scrutinised and thus the talk is ‘context-free’. Simultaneously, talk-in-interaction is sensitive to context, in the sense that each party to the interaction responds to a preceding turn (whether this turn is spoken or gestured) in the interactional sequence. Consequently, CA does not focus on why people act as they do, but rather how they act (Ten Have, 2007), and it is this focus on talk and gesture that is eminently suited to revealing how dialogic reading strategies are operationalised in practice.
Methodology
In this study, our interest was solely in the ‘mechanics’ of dialogic reading prompts as observed in the talk and, in particular, in children’s spontaneous responses to educators’ prompts during book-reading events. To achieve this, we applied a conversation-analytic approach to deconstruct the reading of storybooks by two educators in two different early childhood settings, focusing on the interactional phenomena between the adults and the children. Our focus is on investigating dialogic reading prompts in order to inform more effective reading practices, and not on drawing inferences regarding the quality of educators’ practices.
Data are presented in the form of extracts from transcripts of storybook-reading episodes, transcribed using CA conventions (Appendix 1). Although the transcripts present the data, in order to conduct the analysis, the researchers return repeatedly to the video recordings. We use dialogic prompts to structure the presentation of our data and juxtapose excerpts from the data, as one book-reading episode provides many examples of dialogic reading prompts whilst the other provides few such examples.
Dialogic learning has been examined from various philosophical and pedagogical perspectives (e.g. Bakhtin, 1981; Freire, 1970; Habermas, 1984). In this study, we apply a conversation-analytic approach (Sacks et al., 1974) to focus solely on naturally-occurring, interactional phenomena during book-reading events in two different early childhood programmes in order to identify and examine the characteristics of these interactions. Knowing precisely which characteristics of the dialogic prompts trigger the desired responses from children has important implications for teaching adults to implement dialogic reading strategies.
The early childhood settings
It is important to note that a conversation-analytic approach does not make any assumptions about the context within which the interactions happen as it focuses primarily on the emic features of the talk as it spontaneously occurs. Nonetheless, it is helpful to describe the rooms within which the book-reading events took place.
The reading of ‘A song for Lorkie’ took place in an early childhood room that offers an education and care programme for children aged from two to five years of age. The centre is a community-based, urban, long-day care centre. This is an unusually wide age range for one room in an Australian early childhood education and care setting. The programme does not routinely include pre-planned group times, and book-reading occurs when requested by children. The book corner is situated near the entrance to the room, is carpeted, and includes many books and a large couch. The book-reading occurred during a typical morning programme. Three children were seated on the couch with the educator throughout the episode; three additional children join the activity for varying amounts of time. As book-reading is spontaneous, the video recording commenced slightly after the book-reading episode had begun, but continued until the end of the story.
The reading of ‘How do dinosaurs eat their food?’ took place at a community-based kindergarten and long-day care centre at the end of a four-year-old Kinder programme as children were preparing to go home. One educator is reading the story while the other educator is tidying the room. The educator is seated facing a group of 17 children; and as the video camera is situated behind the children, it is not always possible to identify which child is speaking or to see the children’s gestures and facial expressions.
In both transcripts, the names of the educators and the children have been changed.
Data analysis
The repeated viewing and transcription of video recordings make possible a highly detailed and nuanced record of the interactions during both book-reading episodes. Rather than allowing interactional phenomena to emerge from the data, we looked for evidence of dialogic reading strategies and then applied a conversation-analytic approach to the transcription of these interactional sequences. The data are thus categorised according to predetermined dialogic reading strategies.
Strategy one: Encourage the child to complete the blank at the end of a sentence by pausing in a meaningful manner
A dialogic reading approach requires a prompt of some sort to indicate the need for the child to complete the blank at the end of a sentence. Educators’ purposeful use of pauses in interactions has been demonstrated to facilitate children’s productive thinking and educators’ contingent responses (Cohrssen et al., 2014). Such prompts can take multiple forms, such as a rising terminal contour (indicated in conversational analysis transcription conventions as a ‘,’ after the final word in the first speaker’s turn), a strongly rising contour (indicated by ‘?’), emphasis placed on the prompt by drawing out the articulation of the word (indicated by : : :) or a combination of these phenomena. Prompts can also be non-verbal, taking the form of an exaggerated facial expression or a physical gesture. There are no examples of such prompts to complete a blank at the end of a sentence during the reading of ‘A song for Lorkie’.
Multiple prompts for children to complete sentences are provided while reading ‘How do dinosaurs eat their food?’ Three examples of different speech markers are presented in the extracts below.
In extract 1, it is by drawing out the pronunciation of ‘new’ at the end of the educator’s turn (line 3). Combined with the rising terminal contour, this indicates to the children that they are required to complete the blank at the end of the sentence. Evidence of the children’s recognition of the function of the rising contour in the educator’s speech is demonstrated by their choral response ‘computer’ (line 4).
Extract 1: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
In extract 2, a playful gesture is used to prompt the children to complete the title of the book. The educator starts by naming the title of the book but then pauses with a dramatic covering of her mouth with her hand and an exaggerated look up to the ceiling. The children’s recognition of the prompt is demonstrated by their choral provision of the final word of the title: the book is called Captain Hero Underpants.
Extract 2: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
In extract 3, a protracted pause of 2 s at the end of line 125 is used as the prompt. Purposeful pauses support higher quality learning interactions as they provide opportunities for both educators and children to reflect on the subject of the interaction and to provide more accurate, thoughtful responses (Cohrssen et al., 2014).
The children’s response in this extract differs slightly from their chorus of ‘underpants’ (line 26, extract 2). In the interaction below, the educator speaks loudly (lines 124–125) as she resumes the story-reading (the increased volume is indicated by the use of capital letters). The increased volume contrasts with a 2 s pause, prompting the children to complete the blank at the end of the sentence. Precisely which children respond at line 126 (indicated by the use of the? symbol) and the children’s choral response is characterised by a markedly reduced volume at line 126 (indicated by the use of the ‘°’ symbol at the start and end of their turn).
Extract 3: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
Whilst the 2 s pause (line 125) prompts the children to complete the sentence in their turn, the reduced volume (particularly when compared with other responses to such prompts) coupled with the rising terminal contour indicates less certainty on the part of the children when they provide the answer: ‘food’. The educator confirms the correctness of the response in the second turn by restating ‘food’ and nodding. An indrawn breath (indicated by ‘.hhh’) precedes the resumption of the story-reading. The prompt at the third turn (lines 129–130) relies on the educator’s gaze shifting from the book to the children, thus indicating an expectation that the children should fill in the blank at the end of the sentence. Some children respond with an incorrect word: ‘loud’ (line 131); however, the purpose of this dialogic prompt, namely to encourage children to complete the end of the sentence, is achieved. The educator continues the reading by providing the correct word and invites the children to demonstrate the meaning of ‘rude’ by making rude burping noises. Once again, several children respond to the prompt.
Completion prompts were thus indicated in these extracts by a drawn out, rising contour on the final word uttered by the educator, by a combination of dramatic eye gaze and gesture, and by a protracted pause which contrasts markedly with the increased volume of the preceding talk. Common to each of these prompts is some form of exaggerated talk, whether in the articulation of a word, eye gaze and gesture, or extended pause. The effectiveness of these prompts is demonstrated by the children’s responses to them.
Strategy Two: Ask questions in order to encourage the child to recall and retell the story
Dialogic reading aims to encourage the child to engage with the story, it positions the adult as the listener and the child as the storyteller. By providing opportunities for the child to recall and retell the story, the child is able to rehearse newly acquired vocabulary as well as to reflect on and reiterate the events of the story in the correct sequence.
During the reading of ‘A Song for Yorkie’ the educator asks five questions about the book. Two questions asked about the book are presented in Extract 4: ‘How many was that?’ (at lines 99–100), and ‘It’s got two mouths? Does it?’ (at lines 105–106). The educator’s question at line 99 is in response to and overlaps with Hugo’s speech (lines 97–98) as Hugo identifies the cars one by one.
Extract 4: A song for Lorkie
This extract commences with evidence in the data that Hugo is attending to the book as he points and names the ‘crocodile cars’ in the illustration. The educator’s first question (repeated in the same turn) prompts Hugo to count how many crocodile cars there are in the illustration. Sammy and Jake’s engagement with the story was somewhat inconsistent; however, the educator’s question (lines 99–100) is immediately followed in the next turn by Jake’s focus on the book (line 101), Hugo’s verbal response to the question (line 102) and Sammy’s non-verbal response to the question (line 104) followed by his initiation of additional information about the illustration at line 105: ‘and he’s got two mouths’. Following this remark, all three children look at the book (line 107). The educator’s question at line 108, rephrased at line 109, is followed by Jake’s sustained attention on the educator (line 110) and Sammy’s verbal response: ‘yes’ (line 111). The data demonstrate that the questioning is supporting the children’s sustained engagement with the story; however, the resumption of the story-reading proceeds at line 113, thus closing down opportunities for more extensive responses from the children.
More than 20 questions are observed during the reading of ‘How do dinosaurs eat their food?’ We join the conversation in Extract 5 when the dinosaur has flipped his spaghetti up in the air.
Extract 5: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
When the children’s response to the question asked at line 184 is a one-word reply (albeit a chorus of ‘no’s’), the educator confirms the response by repeating it (line 186). Whilst repeating the response is not a prompt per se, the pause after it serves the purpose of extending the dialogue as the next turn presents further contingent talk: ‘I wouldn’t do it. It’s gonna come in my nose’ (lines 187–188), a comment which is again responded to and extended (lines 190–192). The questioning has thus served to encourage the children’s sustained engagement in the book-reading event. In addition, the evocative description of spaghetti on the floors and walls extends the children’s imaginative thinking. The educator makes connections to children’s lived experience by asking another question at line 193, drawing the children’s attention to the illustration: ‘Does mum look happy or does she look sad?’ and demonstrating that illustrations provide information that adds to our understanding of the text.
Colmar (2014) identifies child initiations, such as the comments that the car has two mouths and that spaghetti would get in one’s nose, as key indicators of engagement, whether in the form of spontaneous utterances that begin a new conversational sequence or turns that introduce a new topic to an ongoing conversation.
In each of these extracts, the children could have been provided with opportunities to engage in extended thinking and to articulate their thoughts. In Extract 4, had the question been asked ‘How do you know there are four crocodile cars?,’ it is likely that Hugo’s response would have provided a wealth of information regarding his mastery of the principles of counting. Had he been asked ‘Can you tell us where those four cars came from?,’ Hugo would have been provided with an opportunity to recall and retell the story. Similarly, had the question ‘Why do you think he has two mouths?’ been asked of Sammy, the educator would have gained insights into Sammy's thinking. In Extract 5, a question such as ‘What would happen if spaghetti went up your nose?’ would have opened the discussion up for rich imaginative thinking. A question such as ‘Tell us why the dinosaur is flipping spaghetti?’ would have provided opportunities to recall and retell the story. However, a conversation analytic approach does not concern itself with what might have been, but instead focuses on spontaneous talk as it naturally occurs.
Strategies three and four: Use open-ended questions to encourage dialogue during the reading of the story and ask what, why, when, where and how questions
Asking open-ended questions is the third strategy used to encourage children’s active engagement with book-reading and their extended thinking. In high-quality early childhood interactions between educators and children, open-ended questions are those that require more than one-word responses and that require children to communicate complex ideas (Pianta et al., 2008). By focusing on children’s responses to questions, a conversation-analytic approach reveals the open-endedness of the questions themselves. The fourth dialogic reading strategy involves the asking of What, Why, When, Where and How questions to expand children’s thinking, and such thinking is typically articulated in responses of more than one word. As What, Why, When, Where and How questions are likely to generate responses of more than one word, evidence of these dialogic prompts strategies and children’s contingent responses will be discussed together in this section.
There is no evidence of open-ended questioning during the reading of ‘A Song for Lorkie’. At lines 99–100, ‘How many was that? How many?’ is asked in response to Hugo’s pointing and naming of the crocodile cars:
Extract 6: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
Jake responds to the question by looking at the book (line 101) and Hugo provides a one-word response: ‘four’ (line 102), which is repeated by the educator (line 103). A one-word response does not comply with our working definition of an open-ended question being a question that requires more than a one-word response (Pianta et al., 2008).
In Extract 7, the educator draws the children’s attention to an illustration and asks, ‘What’s different about this dinosaur?’ In order to respond to this What- question, the children are required to attend to the attributes of the dinosaur in the illustration, to recall the attributes of previous dinosaurs and to compare and contrast them – in short, to engage in extended thinking.
Extract 7: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
Three children respond to the question: one says ‘cos he has wings’ (line 158), one demonstrates flying by flapping arms (line 159) and the third says ‘flies’ (line 160). This line of questioning does not lead to further dialogue, other than the educator pointing out the dinosaurs in the playroom and reminding two children that played with them earlier.
A Wh- question asked at line 225, supported by a gestural prompt, is more effective in encouraging dialogue.
Extract 8: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
The question, ‘What would happen if you bubbled your milk?’ leads to a choral response that peters out: ‘It would all…’ (line 228). The educator perseveres with this line of questioning with a gesture and a hint (lines 229–231) and a child provides the verbal response that it appears the educator sought as the book-reading resumed in the next turn after the brief affirmation, ‘It would’.
Analysis of the transcripts reveals rare use of open-ended questions. Fine-grained analysis of the conversation in Extract 8 demonstrates that whilst short-lived (lines 225–233), asking a Wh- question did present an opportunity for the children to contribute to the book-reading event.
Strategy five: Link the pictures and the associated vocabulary with the child’s personal lived experience
Dialogic reading refers to a ‘distancing prompt’: the adult assists the child to make connections between the story and the child’s actual life experience, integrating elements of the story with concepts with which the child is already familiar. This dialogic reading strategy thus supports children’s conceptual understanding and the child’s recognition that written text conveys meaningful information.
In examining the extent to which connections are made between the pictures and associated vocabulary, and children’s lived experience, we turn first to the reading of ‘A song for Lorkie’. At lines 215–216, reference is made to a shooting star streaking across the sky. Hugo comments at line 223, and seven turns later, Sammy makes a connection between the shooting star in the book and one which he had seen on television.
Extract 9: A song for Lorkie
Whilst the educator’s questions at line 225 (‘Did you?’) and line 232 (‘In the TV?’) are not open-ended, they serve to sustain the children’s engagement with the story, and Sammy makes a connection between the illustration and the shooting star he had seen on television.
During the reading of ‘How do dinosaurs eat their food?’, several connections are made between the illustrations in the book and the children’s personal lived experiences. For example, connections are made between (1) the dinosaur flicking spaghetti high up in the air with what would happen if you flicked it up in the air at home (Extract 5), (2) the dinosaur ‘that has wings’ and the dinosaurs with which children had been playing earlier in the day (Extract 7) and (3) the dinosaur bubbling his milk when he drinks with children bubbling their milk when they drink (Extract 8), the latter being extended into a discussion that ranges from a sibling bubbling her milk when she drinks to cats drinking milk.
Extract 10: How do dinosaurs eat their food?
In Extract 10, the interactional sequence commences with the educator reading the story loudly, using a terminal rising speech contour followed by a marked pause, and then asking a direct question: ‘Is that what we do?’ (lines 146–147). This question requires the children to evaluate whether the dragon’s behaviour aligns with their own lived experience. Only one child responds and the one-word response is quietly spoken (line 148). Rather than resuming the story, the educator repeats the child’s response (line 149), turns the book so that it faces the children and asks a follow-up question that requires the children to reflect on what they do with their cups at Kinder, thus making an explicit connection between the illustration in the book and their own experience: that used cups are put ‘in the sink’ (line 152), a response that is provided more confidently by several children. Again, the educator reinforces the response by repeating and confirming its correctness (line 153) before continuing to read the story.
In these extracts, we observe missed opportunities to follow children’s conversational gambits by inviting them to extend their contributions. For example, Sammy may have shared more knowledge about shooting stars, and the children could have discussed why we put our cups in the sink at Kinder. Nonetheless, the extracts demonstrate the potential for meaningful connections to be made between book-reading events and children’s personal knowledge, reinforcing children’s understanding of the purpose of written text, providing opportunities to encourage children’s active engagement in book-reading events and creating opportunities for children to be positioned as storytellers rather than listeners.
Conclusion
Storybook reading is an important part of children’s literacy learning and typically occurs frequently in early childhood settings. In this study, we applied conversation-analytic conventions to develop very detailed transcripts of book-reading events in two different early childhood settings. Our goal was not to draw inferences about the quality of the book-reading, but rather to interrogate evidence of dialogic reading prompts if and when they emerged in the data in order to deconstruct the interactional phenomena that underpin such reading strategies. Identifying the component constructs of dialogic reading prompts is a first step towards purposefully incorporating such interactional phenomena in order to inform more effective reading practices, and thus better support children’s early literacy competencies.
Literacy competencies play a major role in everyday life and are important for academic achievement and life success in general (Duncan et al., 2007; Fawcett, 2003; Lyon, 2002). Whilst formal teaching of literacy begins at school, early literacy competencies begin to develop long before children start school and specific early competencies are the best predictors of later outcomes (Bowman et al., 2003; Flax et al., 2009). Children’s acquisition of a broad vocabulary can be extended by purposeful and deliberate support from adults during book-reading that goes beyond simply reading the words on a page but instead facilitates dialogue, extended thinking and the making of connections between the story and the child’s world. In short, the acquisition of vocabulary is facilitated by high-quality adult–child interactions during book-reading (Mol et al., 2008).
This is particularly important in a multi-cultural context, such as an Australian early childhood setting, as the informal home-based literacy experiences of some children may be limited by the English language skills of adult family members. Once at school, the effort children put into acquiring the language that is the medium of instruction is effort that first-language speakers invest in mastering academic skills (Leseman, 2002) and consequently this gap is difficult to close. Shared book-reading presents rich opportunities for children to experience the purpose of print media, to hypothesise about a story, to engage in extended thinking, to make connections between the story and their own lives, to acquire new vocabulary and to rehearse new words in extended conversations about the story. As children’s interest in reading and writing grows, dialogic reading presents opportunities to focus on attributes of the text such as letters, words and sentences.
Applying a conversation-analytic approach to transcripts of video-recorded book-reading events revealed multiple strategies to prompt children to complete sentences, no evidence of children being invited to recall or retell stories, few open-ended questions, but several examples of connections being made between a story and the children’s real worlds. These findings highlight the importance of educators using book-reading in a systematic and intentional way to support children’s learning. When selecting books for reading in an early childhood setting, pre-reading the story and giving some thought to examples of specific dialogic reading prompts prior to reading the books with children would increase the purposefulness with which educators engage with children during book-reading events. In this way, story time would provide opportunities for children to become actively involved storytellers, rehearsing newly acquired vocabulary, engaging in extended thinking and dialogue and making connections between print media and their lived experiences.
More individualised interactions are possible with smaller groups. Despite this, the two examples provided demonstrate that dialogic reading strategies used with the large group during ‘How do dinosaurs eat their food?’ increased the quality of the children’s engagement with the text and thus supported their emerging literacy competencies (e.g. Lever and Sénéchal, 2011; Whitehurst et al., 1994). ‘A song for Lorkie’ was read to a substantially smaller group of children; however, fewer dialogic reading strategies emerge in the data, and consequently fewer conversations occur that support the children’s literacy skills, and less extended thinking is evident in the data. The efficacy of dialogic reading depends on the reader, as well as on the age of the children (Mol et al., 2008) and the quality of the book (Kucirkova et al., 2012); nonetheless, it is a reading strategy that should be taught to all pre-service and post-qualification early-childhood educators. Identifying the components of effective dialogic reading is a significant first step towards purposefully replicating such strategies, thus raising the quality of storybook reading and better supporting children’s emerging literacy skills.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a fellowship within the Postdoctoral Programme of the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD).