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Shared Picturebook Reading in a Preschool Class: Promoting Narrative Comprehension Through Inferential Talk and Text Difficulty

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Abstract

This study focuses on the relationship between teacher–text–child interactions during shared picturebook reading and its effect on children’s narrative comprehension. Using a micro-analytic approach, we studied nine large-group bookreading sessions of one experienced teacher and her classroom of 17 preschoolers from low-income backgrounds over a school year. We coded the bookreading interactions according to the level of analytic rigor demanded by the questions the teacher asked (literal, simple inferential, complex inferential), the children's responses to these questions (incorrect, adequate, correct), and the teacher's follow-up responses (evaluative, elaborative), including additional follow-up questions and prompts elicited by the children's responses. We examined whether picturebook difficulty (low, medium, high) was related to the demand level of the teacher's questions and the children's responses. We also examined whether children’s participation in these interactions was associated with children’s narrative comprehension, which was tested at the beginning and end of the school year. Overall, the teacher consistently asked a higher proportion of inferential (80%) than literal questions (20%). Medium-difficulty level books elicited more complex inferential questions than easier or harder books. Children correctly answered such questions from medium-difficulty books more often than easy or difficult ones. Increases in children's narrative comprehension from pretest to posttests were related to the children’s frequency of active participation and the accuracy of their responses. These results have implications for how picturebook choice and type of discussion can promote narrative comprehension among preschoolers from low-income backgrounds.

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Notes

  1. Sipe (2012) defines picture storybooks as ones with a discernable narrative or several narratives. Narrative entails a distinct storyline relating sequencing of events that characters experience, including solving different types of problems they encounter.

  2. Reading scholars conceptualize reading comprehension as the application of a skill that evolved for oral listening comprehension to a new form of input (reading a text).

  3. Even though inference skills start early (Filiatrault-Veileux et al., 2015), their development and application in reading, understanding, and evaluating texts continue throughout childhood and adolescence (Gerrig & Wenzel, 2015; Goldman et al., 2015).

  4. Text difficulty and text complexity are related terms and are often used interchangeably. In using these terms, we follow Mesmer et al.’s (2012) distinction that “text complexity” refers to the properties of the text, regardless of reader or task. In contrast, “text difficulty” refers to how easy or difficult a text is for readers, and it incorporates some measures of text complexity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, 17 Memorial Drive East, Bethlehem, PA, 18015, USA

    Ageliki Nicolopoulou & Gina Maurer

  2. University of North Florida, Jacksonville, USA

    Elizabeth Hale

  3. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

    Kathryn Leech

  4. Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

    Marsha Weinraub

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  1. Ageliki Nicolopoulou
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Nicolopoulou, A., Hale, E., Leech, K. et al. Shared Picturebook Reading in a Preschool Class: Promoting Narrative Comprehension Through Inferential Talk and Text Difficulty. Early Childhood Educ J (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01497-5

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