Story reading as an environmental influence on the language behavior of the early elementary school child

Abstract

A field experiment to assess the role of the linguistic environment on children aged 5 to 7 was conducted using 21 mother‐child pairs. Testing three competitive hypotheses based on alternative explanations of the acquisition of passive verb constructions, results showed children uniquely responded to stories read to them over six weeks. An alternative “readiness to respond” hypothesis was rejected as was an interaction between environment and age. This study concludes that a learning strategy which incorporates use of story reading at home and at school provides a powerful tool in shaping of language behavior of children.