Young Children’s Reading Responses and Story Comprehension in the Buddy Reading of Wordless Picture Books: Comparing Cooperation and Competition in Reading

Abstract

Objectives The purpose of this study was to find out whether four-year-old children differ in their reading responses and story comprehension when reading wordless picture books with their peers in different peer interaction conditions. Methods The children (N = 115) were from two daycare centers and four kindergartens located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. Each child's personal characteristics were controlled by random assignment. After the children had read the picture book assigned for cooperative, competitive and reading alone conditions, their story comprehension was measured. Results The number of words spoken was greater in the cooperative and competitive conditions than in the reading alone condition. Exploratory, interpretive, constructive and play behaviors were more frequent in the cooperative condition. However negative behavior was more frequent in the competition condition. Story comprehension was higher when children read picture books in cooperation with their peers. Conclusion The context in which picture books were read was found to affect not only reading responses, but also the story comprehension. Keywords: story comprehension, reading responses, buddy reading, cooperation and competition, wordless picture books