Teachers’ affective presentation of children’s books and young children’s display of affective engagement during classroom book reading

Abstract

This study examines how teachers’ use of affective strategies (voice intonation, dramatization, personal involvement comments) during the reading and discussion of books influence young children’s affective reactions (dramatization, personal engagement, language play comments). Twenty kindergarten teachers read four books, two fiction and two information ones (narrative/expository text). We found significant differences in both teachers’ affective presentation and young children’s affective reactions between fiction and information books, between the two fiction books but not between the narrative and expository text. A strong bi-directional relationship was found between teachers’ affective presentation of stories and young children’s affective reactions. In particular, teachers’ personal involvement comments prompted children’s personal engagement reactions, teachers’ reenactment was followed by children’s imitations of such reenactments and teachers’ voice intonation elicited children’s personal engagement comments. On the other hand, children’s use of paralinguistic cues and personal engagement comments reinforced teachers’ use of voice intonation and personal involvement comments. Finally, text features, such as rhyming, were followed by children’s language play.