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Mother–child talk during joint book reading in two social classes in Taiwan: Interaction strategies and information types

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2015

CHIEN-JU CHANG  and
CHO-CHI HUANG
CHIEN-JU CHANG*
Affiliation:
National Taiwan Normal University
CHO-CHI HUANG
Affiliation:
National Chang-Hua Senior School of Commerce
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Chien-Ju Chang, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, National Taiwan Normal University, 162 Heping East Road, Section 1, Taipei, Taiwan. E-mail: changch2@ntnu.edu.tw
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Abstract

This paper aims to understand mother–child book-reading interactions in different socioeconomic classes in Taiwan. Two groups of 16 mothers and their 3-year-old children, one from upper-middle socioeconomic backgrounds and the other from low-income families, participated in this study. Each dyad was visited at home, and mothers were asked to read a book with their children. Interactions during joint book reading were tape-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the Child Data Exchange System. The results showed that mothers from the upper middle class tended to encourage children to narrate the story, ask open-ended questions, and discuss nonimmediate information, while the low-income mothers tended to take book reading as their responsibility and required their children to be attentive. Educational implications and suggestions for further research were discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 387 - 410
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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