Shared Storybook Reading and Oral Language Development: A Bioecological Perspective.

Lorenz Grolig

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01818

Abstract

Shared reading research has become increasingly multidisciplinary and has incorporated a multitude of assessment methods. This calls for an interdisciplinary perspective on children’s shared reading experiences at home and at the child care center and their relationships to oral language development. Here, we first discuss Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006) regarding the relationship between shared storybook reading and oral language development. Second, we develop a framework for investigating effects of shared reading on language development in two important microsystems: the home literacy environment (HLE) and the child care literacy environment (CCLE). Zooming in on shared storybook reading as a proximal process that drives oral language development, we then develop a triad model of language learning through shared storybook reading that integrates approaches and evidence from educational psychology, developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, and corpus linguistics. Our model describes characteristics of children, adults, and books, and how their interplay influences shared reading activities. Third, we discuss implications for the Home Literacy Model (Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2002, 2014) regarding the conceptualization of shared reading as an important source of oral language development. Finally, to facilitate integrated research designs that include the two most important microsystems, we provide a critical discussion of assessment methods used in research that investigates the HLE and the CCLE and relate them to the shared reading triad in our bioecological model of shared storybook reading. We conclude with directions for future research.

Highlights

Being proficient in the majority language is a key competence for learning in educational contexts, such as child care and school (Hoff, 2013; Kempert et al, 2019)
To understand how effects of shared storybook reading on oral language development are situated in communication settings, a comprehensive assessment of environmental factors should take into account distal environmental variables that are situated on the exosystem level (e.g., socioeconomic status (SES)), proximal environmental variables that are situated on the microsystem level, and descriptions or results of the proximal process itself, such as interaction or outcome measures of shared storybook reading
Based on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006), we developed a bioecological perspective on oral language learning through shared storybook reading and described how available research methods can be utilized to investigate key relationships between child, caregiver, and book, called the shared reading triad

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Being proficient in the majority language is a key competence for learning in educational contexts, such as child care and school (Hoff, 2013; Kempert et al, 2019). To investigate environmental influences on development, research should take into account that the power of proximal processes (e.g., shared reading) depends both on the environmental context (e.g., shared reading at home and at the child care center) and characteristics of the person (e.g., memory; Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006). Interactions between environmental factors and person variables are of key interest in bioecological research: “The form, power, content, and direction of the proximal processes effecting development vary systematically as a joint function of the characteristics of the developing person and the environment – both immediate and more remote – in which the processes are taking place [...]” The biological systems within a developing organism both limit individual development and represent at the same time the potential for development that can be realized through adequate experiences (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006)

A Bioecological Model of Language Development Through Shared Reading

A Modified Home Literacy Model

Findings

SUMMARY AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH