Abstract #3122

Abstract: As Adams states (1990), “The single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children” (p. 9). Whereas preschoolers’ knowledge of the alphabet and phonemic awareness are the best predictors of reading success in first grade, subsequent reading achievement by third grade depends largely on language and vocabulary knowledge (Beck, 2007; Gollinkoff et al., 2018). Reading aloud to children offers such knowledge because picture books include complex syntactical structures and low-frequency words, not commonly used in oral language (Montag et al., 2015). The text itself and the quality of teacher-led discussions about it, including expanding the text, discussing new words, and asking questions, support preschoolers’ language development (Yang, 2021). This evidence is supported by studies conducted in different countries that look at the characteristics of early read aloud experiences, in both home and school contexts, that influence the shaping of a reader (Araújo & Costa, 2015: Atalo & Westlund, 2001; Burguess et al., 2001; Tjaru, 2023; Yang et al., 2021). Both the Portuguese curriculum for preschool education and the National Reading Plan stress the importance of reading to young children (Lopes et al, 2016) but little is known about the reading aloud practices of preschool teachers and about which books they use. We developed a questionnaire to assess preschool teachers’ perceptions and practices about storybook reading sessions and report on its design, application and results. The statistical procedures applied to analyze the 232 questionnaires obtained from the sample of Portuguese preschool teachers allowed us to validate the results of two scales: 1) the importance of activities during story reading (10 items), and the frequency of different types of reading practices (7 items). Reliability measures were obtained by estimating Cronbach alpha coefficients, which rendered good internal consistency values; 0,869 for the first scale and 0,844 for the second. Item characteristics were also considered, as well as the relationships between the scales and background variables. Preliminary findings indicate that 46% preschool teachers read 15-30 minutes per day and that only 27% discuss new vocabulary with children during reading aloud sessions. Teachers’ responses indicate that they read predominantly picture books translated from English, with a focus on themes related to life experiences and relationships. We find that this questionnaire is a valid tool to characterize the reading practices of preschool teachers, and can be extended to other international contexts. Its application allows one to assess if perceptions and practices are aligned with current thinking about the contribution of read-alouds to children’s future success in reading. In this sense, it can inform teachers’ professional development initiatives and preschool curricula development.

References

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Alatalo, T., & Westlund, B. (2021). Preschool teachers’ perceptions about read-alouds as a means to support children’s early literacy and language development. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 21(3), 413-435. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798419852136
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Lopes da Silva, I., Marques, L., Mata, L., & Rosa, M. (2016). orientações curriculares para a educação pré-escolar. Lisboa: Ministério da Educação/Direção Geral de Educação. Retirado de http://www.dge.mec.pt/ocepe/

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Yang, N., Shi, J., Lu, J., & Huang Y. (2021). Language development in early childhood: Quality of teacher-child interaction and children's receptive vocabulary competency. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-12.

Preschool Teachers’ Self-Reported Storybook Reading Practices