READING ALOUD TO CHILDREN.   Term Paper ID:20258 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Benefits, impact on school success, techniques, research, comprehension, literacy skills. Paper Introduction: This paper delineates and discusses current research on reading aloud to children from infancy to school age. The purpose of the paper is to determine the positive contributions associated with reading aloud to children, especially those benefits related to school success. The importance of reading aloud to children has been addressed by O'Leary (1991), who notes that, in order for children to develop good reading habits, they must first be surrounded with books, stories and reading, not only in the classroom but in the home and the community: Children who read and are read to outside of school do better than those who do not read and are not read to outside of school. Parents and other family members should make books and reading aloud a routine part of life on an Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. David'searliest use of literary language included his lifting of formulaic phrasesfrom texts and employing them in his own play and narrative. (1987. Paper presented at the Meeting of theAssociation for Childhood Education International (Omaha, NE, April 3 -May3).Martinez, M., & Roser, N. It wasfound that, during listening, the child worked very hard at acquiringliteracy skills by questioning, rhyming, punning, and guessing. An interesting aspect of reading aloud was investigated by Martinezand Roser (1985). In San Antonio, Texas, 8 families(4 each of low and middle income, with 2 families in each group being ofMexican-American heritage and 2 of Anglo heritage) tape-recorded onestorybook reading session with their children. Purcell-Gates (1986) noted that educators have suggested thatchildren whose families have read to them during their preschool yearsacquire lexical and syntactic knowledge of sentence-level features typicalof written narrative before they begin formal literacy instruction. Inother words, reading aloud to children gives them an educational headstart. As the infant began to demonstrate anunderstanding of the relationship of the parent's voice and repetitivelanguage with that of the familiar book, parents began to add new books tothe reading sessions, thereby increasing the child's listening library.The parents logged the reading and attitudinal behaviors exhibited by theinfants, and at monthly group meetings reading/listening interactions werevideo-taped. Ed 334 541).Toomey,, D. Paper presented at the AnnualMeeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Francisco,CA, April 2 -24).Williams, C.M. CS 8887) Ohio (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. The results indicated that the majority of respondents readstories on request at bedtime, usually reading the book and looking at thepictures, as well as pausing periodically to ask questions about the story. A three-year longitudinal study conducted by Sulzby and Teale (1987)combined research in preschool storybook reading with research in parent-child interaction across income and cultural groups. How parents prepare their childrenfor a formal reading program. This paper delineates and discusses current research on reading aloudto children from infancy to school age. In other words, reading aloud tochildren can create in them a love of reading. (1986). (Report No. The two narrative registers were compared within subjects forsignificant differences along 16 dimensions representing lexical andsyntactic features known to differentiate oral and written narrative (e.g.number of participles, attributive adjectives, literary words and phrases,direct quotes, and formulaic openings). Based on their data, the authors suggested that, whena parent or teacher reads the same story to children several times, theybegin to attend to different aspects of the story than they did on thefirst reading, thereby increasing their levels of comprehension. O'Leary lists recommends several activities involving reading aloudto children. (Report No CS 8591) Pennsylvania (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No ED 277 974).Joyner, R., & Ray G.E. Listening to a story on a regular basis isbelieved to bridge the gap between the child's experience of the writtenand spoken language. No significant differences between the grades werefound, contradicting the hypothesis that second graders' expectations ofwritten narrative would reflect the effects of learning to read. CS 8539) Illinois (ERIC DocumentReproduction Service No. He states thatcelebrities can be invited to share stories with children. The purpose of the paper is todetermine the positive contributions associated with reading aloud tochildren, especially those benefits related to school success. (1991). Hoffman (1986) concluded that reading aloud tochildren is an important facet of the literate home environment and thebest preparation for the establishment of preschool literacy skills andreading aloud to children is usually considered "enrichment" in theelementary school classroom, but the experience with David shows that itshould be made an important element in reading instruction. Parents and other family members should make books and reading aloud a routine part of life on an everyday basis as well as on important family occasions . Three books were sent home with eachchild twice a week, and the parents were asked to read these to theirchildren. Specifically, the authors examined not only the efficacyof reading aloud to preschool and school-age children but also the effectsof repeated reading. Look--all of these words in a row start the same as me! Totest this claim, to discern growth in this knowledge over time andexperience, and to describe the lexical and syntactic expectations held bythese children, a study compared oral and "written" narratives producedorally by well-read-to children. Results of these studies follow: (1) The project was successful in affecting the emergent literacycompetencies of children from a disadvantaged locality, in that thecompetencies represented by the performance tests of emergent literacycompetence were more advanced in the project group than in a comparisongroup, with controls for a range of family environment and initialcompetence variables; (2) By implication, it seems the project was fairly successful inencouraging parents to read with their children; (3) The project affectedemerging literacy skills which were predictive of the school literacyscore. Short and medium run effects of parents reading to pre-school children in a disadvantaged locality. Findings of the descriptivestudies of parent-child interactions follow: (1) storybook reading is anintegral part of family life; (2) storybook reading interaction becomesinternalized; and (3) children spontaneously engage in storybookreenactments. . Sulzby andTeale (1987) concluded that findings suggested that children discover theinterrelationships between oral and written language within their cultureduring the period from birth to the time when they are conventionallyliterate and that reading aloud can be an important part of the process. Reading Teacher, 38(8), 782-786.O'Leary, J.D. A variety of literacymeasures (emergent literacy development, letter recognition, recognition ofenvironmental print with and without logos, ability to read their own name,writing development, and knowledge of concepts about print) wereadministered to the children, and the mothers of children were interviewed. For example, it has been found that children whose parents readto them aloud evidence lexical and syntactical knowledge of writtennarrative prior to any formal instruction. She states that reading to children allows for theintroduction to new words, complex sentence structures, standard forms ofEnglish, various styles of written language, the development of a sense ofstory, motivation to refine reading skills, and a pleasurable experience.Furthermore, read-aloud programs may increase reading achievement inchildren of lower socioeconomic status and younger children in general. Joyner and Ray (1987) conducted a pilot study (using the fieldresearch format) examining the acquisition of behaviors in infants who areread to and with on a consistent basis from their first day of life throughthe first year. Results of this study verified that infants in the firstmonths of life exhibit signs of pleasure and security in positive readingsituations. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of theSoutheastern Regional Conference of the International Reading Association(11th, Nashville, TN, November 2-5).Hoffman, S.J. The analysis revealed that children well-read-to prior to formalliteracy instruction had abstracted identifiable lexical and syntacticexpectations of written narrative. Williams also reported that researchers have found a positivecorrelation between being read to and reading achievement, readingreadiness, the development of listening skills, and early readingcapability. A total of 55 families were involved. (Report No. Pointing to and reading signs was themost frequently mentioned "other" activity. The first recommendation is that parents, grandparents,aunts, uncles, and other adult friends participate in "community readingcircles," defined as a place in the community where children gather on aregular basis to read and share stories. Follow-up studies of the children's success in school literacy werecarried out for the 1989 cohort in Year One (equivalent to kindergarten inthe United States) and Year Three of schooling and for the 1991 cohort inYear One. Ed 285 132).Sulzby, E., & Teale, W.H. It can, without qualification,be recommended to all parents. Reading behavior in infancy: Developmentaland attitudinal implications. Readings wereaudiotaped and transcribed in both languages. As a result, the experience enhances the child'sacquisition of literacy competence, providing not only benefits associatedwith reading in particular but also benefits associated with the writtenlanguage. Read it again: The value of repeatedreadings during storytime. Williams (1986) examined the general literature on reading aloud. Reading aloud has been found to be positively correlated with bothlevels of students' reading achievement and their reading capabilities.Specifically, children who have been read to aloud since they were infantsor toddlers evidence enhancement of reading ability, reading comprehensionskills, and decoding skills. (ReportNo. In the Chicago, Illinois, area, storybook readings were elicited fromlarge numbers of preschool and kindergarten children, focusing on lowincome children recently immigrated from rural Mexico and placed inbilingual classrooms in a large suburban school district. Twenty kindergarten and 2 second-gradersfirst told the researcher about their birthday parties (oral narrative) andthen pretended to read a story to a doll from a wordless book (writtennarrative). Since David often asked to have thesame books read to him, he eventually committed them to memory. Parents' book selection usuallyreflected their childhood favorites, and mothers responded most often tothe child's request for a story. ED 274 947).----------------------- 3 Parents' childhood experiences provided informationabout reading readiness activities. Finally, "Sesame Street" wasthe favorite television program; most children watched one or more hours oftelevision per day, and most respondents considered themselves good readingrole models for their child. CS 1 632) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: National LiteracySecretariat (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Such circles are said to be anextremely powerful tool in the effort to support learning and literacy.O'Leary also recommends setting up reading tents at community events, aswell as "street reading" with teen reading teams. Findings also indicated that well-read-to children expectedthe language of written narrative to be integrated, involving, literary,and decontextualized. Three parent/infant teams participated in a year-longcourse which consisted of reading "familiar" books to the infants,beginning with their day of birth. Hestated that the research shows that reading aloud, especially at an earlyage, significantly affects students because it bridges the gap betweenwritten and spoken language and familiarizes children with languagepatterns of literature. Dzama and Gilstrap (1985) examined what parents of preschool children(infancy through age 5) do to help their children get ready for a formalreading program, such as how often parents carried out pre-readingactivities and how the activities compared with those generally suggestedby early childhood education experts. In this regard, theresearch indicated that reading aloud to infants, preschool children andeven school-age children is associated with multiple and diverse benefits,many of which are relevant to later school success (The presumption here isthat it is probably even related to career success through its boostingacademic success). Creating a love of reading = Susciter le Gout de laLecture. O'Leary also states that politicalissues and personalities can be used to provoke discussions which are thenfollowed up by reading books and articles. (Report No. (1992). Lexical and syntactic knowledge of writtennarrative held by well-read-to kindergartners and second graders. If parents and their children persistently and daily come together and share family stories, community stories, and national stories, they will be developing a love for reading and a respect for each other's characteristics and dignity (p.1). . Children also acquired reading-like behaviors, and their firstwords reflected their listening vocabulary. Literaturebecame an important part of his information background, his language andconcept development, and fuel for his imagination. One such study wasconducted by Toomey (1992), who examined the effectiveness of an Australianemergent literacy program designed to encourage low-income parents to readto their children. Further, it expands vocabulary, adds to thechild's knowledge of the world, and motivates the child to read and enjoybooks. In other words, findings supported thehypothesis. Specifically, theauthors examined storybook reading with groups of children living in SanAntonio, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois. Also, O'Learyrecommends using the TV Guide to read about television shows and to discussviewing with children.Further, he states that reluctant readers who are interested in rock musiccan be reached by such strategies as having adults discuss with them thelyrics to their favorite songs, by having them read about their favoriteperformers, or by joining fan clubs. David was read to at everyopportunity, and a diary was kept to observe, record, and study hisemergent literacy events in the home. Ed 335 634).Purcell-Gates, V. After theirteachers read storybooks repeatedly to them in both languages, the childrenwere asked to read books in both English and Spanish. What research says about the effect of oral readingon reading achievement. Surveys were completed by 157parents. The comprehension effects grow with repeated readings because this allowschildren to more effectively attend to the information being presented. Reading aloud to preschoolers helps to expand theirvocabulary; it provides pleasure, and this pleasurable feeling, in turn,motivates them to continue reading throughout their school career andhopefully on throughout their lives. David also learned tomatch the words that he was saying with the print that he saw in the booksand consequently learned to read without formal instruction. Results indicated that children in both cohortsdisplayed an increase in emergent reading ability across time. The importance of reading aloud to children has been addressed byO'Leary (1991), who notes that, in order for children to develop goodreading habits, they must first be surrounded with books, stories andreading, not only in the classroom but in the home and the community: Children who read and are read to outside of school do better than those who do not read and are not read to outside of school. (1985). In otherwords, the effects of reading aloud are positive for reading comprehension. ReferencesDzama, M.A., & Gilstrap, R.L. He learnedcomprehension and decoding skills as he needed them and not in apredetermined order. (1986). The review of literature presented here has examined research relatedto the effects of reading aloud to preschoolers. One cohort was followed frompreschool until November of kindergarten, and another was followedthroughout kindergarten. (1985). Reading aloud to infants andpreschoolers has been found to enhance several reading and reading-relatedcomponents of student behavior and ability. Most parents read to their child daily,and gifts, bookstores, and public libraries were the sources for mostchildren's books. Pre-school teachers in four low-income areas read tochildren in their class regularly. Young children's storybook reading:Longitudinal study of parent-child interaction and children's independentfunctioning. A case study of reading aloud was conducted by Hoffman (1986), whoworked with a young boy named David. (1986). (1987). A good deal of the current literature has examined for the effects ofreading aloud to preschool and school age children. CS 1 626) Chicago, IL: Spencer Foundation (ERICDocument Reproduction Service No. Most children asked for a specific story. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.