Keeping it in context: strategies for enhancing literacy awareness

Abstract

Joint book reading is an integral part of family life for many children and has been considered significant in influencing subsequent success in literacy development. More needs to be known about how parents and children interact in a joint book situation. Do parents interact dif ferently with preschool children who have reached a higher level of literacy development versus children who are less aware of print? This study was designed to investigate how parents of high and low print aware children contextualize stories for them in terms of their prior knowledge. The sample consisted of 27 children and 40 parents. A familiar or favourite story and an unfamiliar story were read by each participating adult to his/her child. Tape recordings of the readings were transcribed and analysed descriptively to determine instances of contextualization. A Concept About Print test indicated the children's level of literacy development. Results indicated that High Print Aware children and their parents contextualized textual information within their own background experiences more frequently than did parents of Low Print Aware children and the Low Print Aware children them selves. Familiarity of text was more frequently a vehicle for con textualization.