This paper reports findings from a mixed methods research project in 2011, which set out to examine the extent and nature of father and child shared home reading practices. There was a particular focus on exploring fathers' perceptions of their role in reading with their child, aged five years old. The research was commissioned by Booktrust and…

Lexical stress is an important contributor to foreign accent as well as intelligibility of second language (L2) speech. The present study intends to find out to what extent Chinese-speaking learners whose native language has less evident stress can acquire English lexical stress. A production test was administered to nine advanced Chinese learners…

Demonstrating comprehension of text is a complex skill that is an area of difficulty for many students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Shared story reading is an intervention that has a history of effectiveness in teaching literacy skills to students with extensive support needs. This study used a multiple probe across participants design to…

Early language development predicts later reading competence, but does reading to young children enhance the language interaction between them and their parents? Automatic assessment of language interaction now yields adult word counts, conversational turn counts and child vocalization counts. This study had 98 families return reading activity…

In early 2017, Scholastic, in conjunction with YouGov, conducted a survey to explore the attitudes and behaviours of English- and French-speaking Canadian children and families around reading books for fun. The key findings of this research, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,939 parents and children, including 371 parents of…

This study explored longitudinal associations between early shared reading at 2 to 3 years of age and children's later academic achievement. It examined the mediating role of children's vocabulary and early academic skills, and the moderating effects of family's socioeconomic status. Data were drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian…

Extensive bodies of literature examining child language acquisition and early literacy development indicate that the language and literacy opportunities young children have at home and in school settings, including the nature of their language interactions with adults and their exposure to books and stories, are consequential for mastery of…

The chapters in this volume build on a growing body of ethnomethodological conversation analytic research on teaching in order to enhance our empirical understandings of teaching as embodied, contingent and jointly achieved with students in the complex management of various courses of action and larger instructional projects. Together, the…

Technology can create new opportunities for learning "with" and "from" people of other cultures, not just "about" them. The Global Read Aloud (GRA) offers an example of such learning possibilities. The GRA is a project that connects classrooms via digital technologies to discuss common texts. This research explored…

Purpose: Many well-accepted systems for determining difficulty level exist for books children read independently, but few are available for determining the wide range of difficulty levels of storybooks read aloud to preschoolers. Also, the available tools list book characteristics only on the basis of parents' or authors' opinions. We created an…

Research Findings: Shared reading is reported to be the single best instructional practice for emergent literacy skills. Vocabulary instruction practices implemented during shared reading by both Head Start (HS) teachers and teachers from more affluent private school settings were compared to determine whether there were differences between the 2…

The article reflects results from a web-based survey of early career teachers who had taken a required, hybrid course focused on sustainability science. Many alumni reported early efforts to integrate sustainability topics and ways of thinking into their K-8 classrooms. Teachers reported modeling of classroom behaviors that promoted sustainability…

Shared reading represents an established practice to foster preschool vocabulary development, particularly when coupled with explicit instruction in word meanings. However, a question remains as to whether explicit word definitions detract from story delivery and hence language learning. Accordingly, this study compared explicit versus…

The purpose of this study was to determine if picture books in high school classrooms could enhance word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Previous research has not fully considered employing picture books as mentor texts in high schools. Twelve participants from two low-performing 10th grade English classes were identified as low-,…

This case study uses structural equation modeling to examine the predictive validity of the Read Aloud Profile-Together, a measure of the distinct behaviors of parents and children during shared book reading, in relation to preschool children's early reading competency. Using secondary data analysis, this case study includes 800 parent-child pairs…