Opportunities for learning from picture books and shared reading in monolingual and bilingual environments

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Books and literacy engagement provide children with language learning opportunities, often in more than one language. However, little is known about the connections between literacy materials, parents’ interaction with these materials, and children’s learning from these interactions. This symposium aims to holistically examine children’s literacy environments in monolingual and bilingual settings by exploring how books (Talk 1), speech exchanged during shared reading (Talk 2), and literacy activities (Talk 3) shape parent-child reading interactions and how these opportunities influence language development (Talk 4). Talk 1 demonstrates that bilingual books may present two languages in different ways, which may have implications for how parents read these books and how children learn from them. Talk 2 reveals that book text and caregivers’ (monolingual and bilingual) book-reading provide more diverse speech than non-book-sharing speech, suggesting that reading activities offer particularly rich language learning opportunities for monolingual and bilingual children. Talk 3 establishes that monolingual and bilingual mothers’ and fathers’ literacy engagement is similarly important and relatively stable across early childhood and language development, suggesting that parent-infant literacy engagement remains a prevalent feature of early learning environments. Talk 4 demonstrates that preschoolers can learn new vocabulary from two online book reading formats (prerecorded vs. video chat), implying that a variety of book reading formats offer similar language learning opportunities. Together, this symposium describes how children’s literacy environment shapes opportunities for language learning and may have direct implications for understanding the types of books and literacy activities most supportive of monolingual and bilingual children’s language development.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Marissa Anne Castellana, Arizona State University

Individual Presentations

• Quantity, lexical diversity, and syntactic complexity in bilingual picture books and shared reading interactions - Presenting Author: Marissa Anne Castellana, Arizona State University; Matthew Guerra; Christine Potter, University of Texas at El Paso; Viridiana L. Benitez, Arizona State University

• The Rich Language of Book Sharing within English- and Spanish-Speaking Families - Presenting Author: Kirsten Read, Santa Clara University; Janet Yougi Bang, San José State University; Alvin Tan; Virginia A. Marchman, Stanford University

• Mothers’ and Fathers’ Literacy Involvement Trajectories 9 to 24 months: Transactional Relations to Child Language - Presenting Author: Yu Chen, New York University School of Medicine; Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park; Jay Fagan, Temple University

• “Can you pretend to gnaw?” Learning from gestures during video chat reading - Presenting Author: Amanda Delgado, University of Delaware; Caroline Gaudreau, University of Delaware; Rebecca Dore, Ohio State University; Roberta M Golinkoff, University of Delaware