More than words: Narrator engagement during storytelling increases children’s word learning, story comprehension, and on-task behavior

Abstract

Reading stories to children fosters their language development. An approach rarely investigated is narrators telling stories without reading from text (i.e., oral storytelling). Oral storytelling may differ from more commonly employed read-aloud approaches in terms of language complexity and the opportunity to regulate the storytelling process via attention-guiding behavior, such as eye contact and gesticulation. By experimentally separating the influences of language complexity and attention-guiding behavior, the current study tried to shed light on the effect of story-delivery method (oral storytelling vs. read-aloud) and its underlying mechanisms on novel word acquisition, story comprehension, and children’s on-task behavior. In a 4 × 2 mixed-design, with method of story delivery (live read-aloud vs. live oral storytelling vs. audiotaped read-aloud vs. audiotaped oral storytelling) as a between-subjects factor and time (pretest vs. posttest) as a within-subjects factor, a sample of 60 four- to six-year-old children listened to four short stories in one of the four conditions twice. Target-word learning from pre- to posttest as well as story comprehension were measured. Additionally, in the live conditions storyteller and child behavior was coded. Although learning occurred across conditions, live oral storytelling resulted in the largest gains in receptive target-vocabulary and best story comprehension. In addition, children were less restless and more attentive during live oral storytelling.