Mediating Learning in the Zones of Development: Role of Teacher and Kindergartner Talk-Turns During Read-Aloud Discussions

ABSTRACT

We explored how teacher and child talk-turns were related to children’s subsequent comprehension responses during read-alouds. Data included three kindergarten teachers’ interactive read-alouds (736 talk-turns across six video-recorded and transcribed sessions). Talk-turns were coded using a priori and emergent codes. Statistical discourse analysis, which analyzes how previous talk-turns in a conversation are related to later talk-turns in the conversation, was used to identify how specific teacher an d child talk-turns within a read-aloud were related to a child’s later comprehension expressions during that same read-aloud. Findings show how specific talk-turns in which teachers mediate children’s behavior by (a) promoting particular child actions related to the read-aloud content or (b) restricting or expanding ways that children can participate, predict children’s subsequent comprehension responses during the read-aloud. Further, findings show how children’s talk-turns that mediate other children’s action related to the read-aloud content predict those children’s subsequent comprehension responses. These findings suggest new and more fine-grained ways that teachers and children can support children’s listening comprehension and vocabulary responses during read-aloud discussions.

KEYWORDS:

• Books discussion
• kindergarten
• listening comprehension
• read-aloud
• vocabulary

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Spencer Foundation, the Oakland University Research Support Committee, and the teachers and children who participated in our study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Spencer Foundation and the Oakland University Research Support Committee.