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    European Journal of Psychology of Education2007, Vol.XXII.n- l. 405-420 2007.1.S.P.A.

    Teachers affective presentation of children sbooks and young children s display of affectiveengagement during classroom book readingEleni MoschovakiMinistry of Education, GreeceSara MeadowsUniversity of Bristol, U.K.Anthony PellegriniUniversity of Minnesota, U.S.A.

    This study examines howteachers useo faffective strategies (voiceintonation, dramatization, personalinvolvement comments) during thereading anddiscussion of books influenceyoun g children s affectivereactions (dramatization, personal engagement, language playcomments). Twenty kindergarten teachers read four books, twofictionandtwo information ones (narrative/expositorytext).Wefound significant d ifferences in both teachers affectivepresentation and young children s affective reactionsbetweenfictionandinformation books,between the twofiction books but notbetweenthe narrative and expository text. A strong bi-directional relationshipwas foundbetween teachers affective presentation of storiesand youngchildren s affective reactions. In particular, teachers personalinvolvement comments prompted children s personal engagementreactions, teachers reenactment wasfollowed by children s imitationsof suchreenactments and teachers voice intonation elicitedchildren spersonal engagement comm ents. On the otherhand children s use ofparalinguistic cues and personal engagement comments reinforcedteachers use ofvoice intonation and personal involvement comments.Finally,text features, such as rhyming, were followed by children slanguageplay.

    Book reading has been the subject of an enormous amount of psychological andeducational research during the last fifteen years. However, to our knowledge, research has

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    406 E. MOSCHOVAKl, S. MEADOW S, & A. PELLEGRINI

    not yet examined young children's affective engagement during book reading and how thatrelates to adults' presentation of the text since young children are not able to read. Such adescription is important in view of the fact that such strategies are important in making thetask attractive especially with young children who have not yet the chance to experience bookreading as a pleasurable activity.

    Adult child interaction during book readingDuring book reading both the adult and the child are active in establishing a sharedunderstanding. Rogoff (1990) uses the notion of intersubjectivity to describe the interpersonalinvolveme nt of the par t ic ipants in a jo in t act iv i ty which p resuppos es not on ly mutualunderstanding of a si tuation but also affective at tunement. Such affective at tunement isachieved through the process of mimicry. Hatfield, Cacioppo, and Rapson (1994) reviewed anumber of studies which illustrate that people's subjective emotional experience does seem tobe affected by the activation and feedback from facial, vocal, postural and movement mimicryand that people therefore tend to catc h othe rs ' emotions. With young children, this is

    particularly effective because they have not yet developed regulation processes in response totheir affective states (Bugental, Lin, & Susskind, 1995). Thus, within the context of bookreading, it would be interesting to see how teachers' affective presentation of books influenceschildren's affective reactions and vice versa.Another process that occurs during book reading with preschool age children is that ofemotional referencing. During such a process, young children look to adults' reactions. Suchreactions inform them of the appropriate stance they should adopt and assist them ininterpreting the situation at hand. Thus, children use their mothers' emotions in order toevaluate their experiences of the world (Klinnert, Campos, Sorce, Emde, & Svejda, 1983;Stem, Hofer, Haft, & Dore, 1985). As young children are not yet able to read a written textalone or unaided, there is usually a reader who mediates between the text and the listener. The

    reader mediates between the implied reader and the actual one by simplifying the text ,omitting parts s/he considers to be difficult for the children and stressing visual and verbalinformation that can assist their understanding. The whole attitude of the storyteller (bodylanguage, tone of the voice etc.) helps children understand better which heroes are talking,how they feel and behave and make them realize if a part of the story is sad, happy orsuspenseful. The story reader therefore, overrides the textual narrator using various techniquesin order to assist children in their effort to comprehend the text (Cochran-Smith, 1984). Suchstrategies not only simplify the task and bring it to the children's level of understanding butalso make the task an interesting and pleasurable one. Bruner (1985) suggests that the adultacts as a vicarious form of conscience for the child. Thus, the way the reader is going topresent the text and his/her personal stance towards it will defme children's reactions. If thereader makes the task interesting and pleasurable, it is most likely that s/he will manage toattract children's interest. In such a case, children will experience the pleasure of listening tostories and develop a positive attitude towards book reading. Therefore, both text presentationand the reader's emotional stance should be taken into consideration during the coding ofaffect.

    Text features and emotional engagem entFurthermore, text features influence the degree of the audience's involvement. A writermay use oral strategies in his text (imaginative literature) in order to achieve the reader'saffective engagement, or use expository prose to impress his audience through the strength ofhis arguments. To achieve this detachment the writer employs passives, nom inalizations and amore integrated language. In contrast, involvement is achieved by referring to the speaker,

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF BOOKS 407

    can facilitate memory and achieve emotional enchantment such as rhyme, rhythm, meter,repetition, redundancy, particular types of story scripts, use of highly vivid or visual imagesthrough the use of senses etc. Chukovsky (1971) also cites examples of young children whodemonstrate not only delight but also sheer rapture when playing games based on rhymes, andpoints out that, usually such games are infectious among children. Thus, features from the text(dialogues, rhyming) have also to be considered during the coding of affective representations,especially since teaehers read the text to the children and then engage them in discussion.

    Book reading styles and young children s developmental outcomesResearch has also focused on the impact of various book reading styles mainly fictionbooks on young children's developmental outcomes. One style of book reading is the dialogicone which encourages children's increasing participation during the book session through theuse of open ended questions, expansion of children's utterances and positive feedback. Aseries of intervention studies with low income children (2-4 years old) have demonstrated aneffec t of the par t icula r s ty le on the i r language and l i te racy deve lopment (Lonigan &

    Whitehurst, 1998; Whitehurst, Arnold, Epstein, Angell, Smith, & Fischel, 1994a; Whitehurst,Epstein, Angell, Payne, Crone, & Fisehel, 1994b; Whitehurst, Falco, Lonigan, Fischel, DeBaryshe, Valdez-Menehaea, & Caulfield, 1988). Other book reading styles are: the co-constructive where a lot of book extending discussion occurs during the reading of book, thedidactic interactional where discussion foeuses on labeling and story recall and takes placeduring the reading of the text and the performance oriented style with limited discussionduring the reading ofthe text followed by book extending discussion afterwards (Dickinson &Smith, 1994). Children who had attended groups with a performance oriented style of readinghad a greater effect on vocabulary growth a year later. Given that teachers discourageddiscussion during the reading of book but treated reading as a performan ce to be enjoyedindicates that the affective presentation of books was accentuated (Dickinson & Smith, 1994,p. 116). Reese and Cox (1999) have also found that the performance style was more beneficialfor children's vocabulary and print skills when the children's initial level was taken intoconsideration. In another study, a significant correlation was found between parents' andchildren's use of affective words such as love, like, want ete. during the book reading andtheir outcomes in concepts about print (book orientation, print direction, letter word concepts,advanced print concepts) a year later when children were three years old (Watson & Shapiro,1988). The pattern of these relations suggests that the affective presentation of books probablyprompts chi ldren ' s a ffec t ive engagement wi th an impact on the i r la te r deve lopmenta loutcom es. Therefore, it is important to have an accurate description of the affective strategiesteachers' use. Furthermore, we do not have any description of young children's reactions interms of their affective engagement.

    Book reading styles according to book genreResearch on home book reading with young children has also shown that adults adoptdifferent reading aloud styles according to the type of book they present. In fiction books andnarrative texts interaction is limited, while in information books and expository texts theyusually adopt a more interactive style (Pellegrini, Pelmutter, Galda, & Brody, 1990; Sulzby &Teale, 1987; Bus & Van Ijzendoorn, 1988; Mason, Peterman, & Kerr, 1989). Due to the natureof fiction books, we expect that such books will prompt a more affective style compared toinformation books.In sum, the aim of this study is to pin down the different strategies teachers use duringthe presentation of books and their impact on young children's affeetive reactions with avariety of book genres. Affective reactions refer to reactions of personal interest, pleasure,

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    408 E. MOSCHOVAKl, S. MEADOWS, & A. PELLEGRINI

    Thus , the research questions of the study have as follows:- W hat kinds of affective presen tations are observed w hen teache rs read texts to their

    students?- W hat affective re actions do children show during a text reading interaction with their

    teacher?- How do tea che rs' use of affective strategies and youn g ch ildre n's affective rea ctionsinfluence one another?- How do these differ across different ge nres for teachers and for students?

    etho ologyarticipantsThe data co l lect ion took p lace in Greek k indergar ten schools where the mean ofinstruction is Greek. Twenty teachers from different schools participated in the study. Schoolswere located in two islands of the North Eastem Aegean Sea (Chios and Lesvos) and in eachschool children were of mixed ages (3.5 to 5.5 years old). Teachers volunteered to participateand the sample consisted mainly of experienced teachers (mean teaching experience 12.6years).Each c lass had from 10 to 20 children and all of them attende d the book se ssion. It shouldbe noted that formal teaching of reading and writing is not part of the curriculum for the earlyyears, however the curriculum adopts an emergent literacy approach. Teachers read children'sbooks inside the class, usually three times per week.

    aterialsAll teachers read the same four books to their students. The four books covered a varietyof story and text genres: Fire by Rius and Parramon (1992), Life under Earth by Rius andParram on (1994), W innie the witc h by Paul and Tho mas (1990) and Th e three l i t tlew olv es by Trivizas (1993). Fi re is an information book with a limited expository text (16pages , 13 sentences). It describes features of fire such as its color and gives examples ofwhether fire can become good or bad, useful or dangerous. The pictures are rather staticshowing the different uses of fire, e.g., a fireplace, a forest blaze, the candles of a birthdaycake, Indians dancing around the fire etc. and com plem ent the text. Life under Earth is aninformation book with a more extended narrative type of text (16 pages, 26 sentences). A littlerabbit describes different events of its life such as how its parents made their burrow, whatkind of food it eats etc. The illustrations present life under Earth (roots, animals, bulbs) withgreat detail and either com plem ent or follow the text at each page. W innie the wi tch is acontemporary fiction book (14 pages, 50 sentences). The book presents an eccentric witchwho lives in a black house with a black cat. The witch is portrayed as a good one, who prefersto change her house in order to make her cat happy. The tex t has no d ialogues . Theillustrations are very impressive and complement the text. The house, the objects and theheroes are presented w ith great detail and artistry. Th e three little wo lve s is a fiction bookwhich follows the traditional style of the fairy tale Th e three little pig s (16 pag es, 156sentences). The text has a lot of repetitions, dialogues, rhyming all features of traditional fairytales. The illustrations are also very impressive and either follow or complement the text.When teachers presented the books, they asked if any child had the specific book at home

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF BOOKS 409

    ProceduresEach session was tape recorded, as teaehers did not feel comfortable with the idea ofbeing video recorded. Teaehers were instructed not to read the story to the ehildren earliersinee researeh has shown that familiarity with the book changes the interaction patterns ofbook reading, with ehildren participating more actively (Goodsitt, Raitan, & Pelmutter, 1988;

    Beals, DeTemple, & Dickinson, 1994). Additionally, teaehers were requested to present thebook in their usual way and try to ignore the researcher's presence in the classroom. Fromeach class, we collected four different book readings; eaeh session took plaee in a differentday. In total, 80 sessions were collected. The mean duration of the session for the books was: Fire M=22, SD=6.22, Life under Earth M=22,SD=1.7, Winnie the Witeh M= 22, SD=1.\and The three little wo lves A/=33.5, SD=12.S.Measures: Developing a coding systemThe unit of analysis. The unit of analysis for the reading ofthe text by the teacher was thesentence, for the d iscussion , the u t terance. Ut terances are def ined as phrases that ared i s t inc t ive in con ten t acco rd ing to the eod ing seheme deve loped wh i l e t ak ing in to

    consideration intonation and tum taking between the teaeher and the ehildren (Wells, 1975).During the eoding of children's behavior, all spontaneous eomments made by ehildrenwere counted as separate utteranees. If there were more than one reply to a teaeher's questionthen the reply that the teaeher accepted was counted. If, however, the teaeher acknowledgedmore than one reply then all replies eounted as separate utteranees.Cod ing of the participants behavior. The coding system for the transc ripts had twolevels. The first level refers to the speaker, teaeher or ehild. Eight stories were eoded by aseeond person in order to calculate the inter-observer reliability. Cohen Kappa at this levelranged from 0.99-1. The second level refers to the eoding of affeet during the reading ofthetext and during diseussion. To our knowledge, there is no available eoding system for themeasurement of affeet in this particular eontext. We eoded utteranees with affeet for both thetext being read and the diseussion. The eategories were mutually exclusive and exhaustive (ifthere wa s no affeet it wa s eoded a s 0).The affeet was eoded for both ehildren's and teacher's utteranees and was based on theprosodie and paralinguistie features of book reading. We did not take into consideration nonverbal features sinee video recording was avoided as being too intrusive. However, after eaehsession, notes were kept for particular gestures the teaeher used during book presentation andthese were taken into consideration during the eoding of affeet. For example, when the witehwas easting her magie spells (abraeadabra) some teaehers would reenaet the seene by wavingtheir hand in the air as if they were holding a magie stiek or knoek their chair when the badpig knoeked the door. Sueh gestures were also accompanied by voiee reenaetment and wereeoded as dramatization utterances. The reeordings, as well the transeription and eoding of thedata were done by the same person, whieh faeil i tated the interpretat ion of the languaget ranser ip t s . Al l para l ingu i s t i e cues sueh as l augh te r , exe lamat ion e t e . t ha t were no taeeompanied by a verbal comm ent were eounted as separate utteranees.We eoded tea ehers ' affeetive presentations into three main eategories. Intonation. This eategory eovers features of voiee intonation sueh as pau sing with thepurpose of stressing a story point; reading slowly in order to emphasize the minimal textin Fire ; prolonging the end of sentenees (storytelling teehnique), prolonging words toemphasize length, size, duration; whispering or raising the voiee in order to stress wordsor attract ehildren's attention. In addition, all sentenees from the original texts withdialogues, rhyming and questions were eoded as intonation. Sueh features ereate a morefragmented kind of language, similar to strategies used in storytelling. For example, theauthor of The three little wo lves has ineluded questions at partieular points of the textwith the purpose of exeiting ehildren (see Table 1). When the teaehers reenaeted the

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    410 E. MOS CHOVA Kl, S. MEAD OWS , & A. PELLEGRINI

    Tab le 1Codingof teachers affective presentation and children s affective reactionsTeachers' affective presentation Children's affective reactionsIntonationPausingSpeed of readingProlongingPitch of voiceTextfeatures:1. Text dialogues2.Rhym ing E.g. , Fingo Mingo3. Questioning E.g., The other day, while they wereskipping in the garden, what do they see?

    Language playRepeating funrty namesE.g., Popo LibopoChimingE.g., Little wolves, scared wolves, let me com e in

    DramatizationRe-enactment of dialogues w ith voice alterationsRe-enactment of scenesE.g., He blew strongly like the wind, fiercely like awindstorm, with force like a typhoon he blew.Som ehow like that: Fououo uouou (Teacher is blowing)

    DramatizationRe-enactments of scenesE.g., Casting mag ic spells (abracatabra)

    Personal involvementExpression of personal interestE.g., I wonder what will happen nextExpression of pleasure and/or excitementE.g., Oh , what a fiinny n ame.E.g., Oh, look children, what have happ ened to their houseE.g., Laughing when reading the text or withsomething tiirmy the children saidExpression of empathy and/or sorrowE.g., And the poor little wolves left very unhappy , indeed

    Personal EngagementExpression of personal interestE.g., Wha t's going to happen no w?Expression of pleasure or laughingE.g., Oh it's beautifulExpression of excitementE.g., What dynamiteExpression of empathy and/or sorrowE.g., Why didn't they (the wolves) go to their mummy?

    - Dram atization. This category includes re-enactm ent of the dialogue s by voicealterations and re-enactment of scenes. Inter-rater reliability in coding utterances inthis category was 98%.- Personal involvement. This category refers to all utterances and paralinguistic cueswhereby teachers expressed personal interest, pleasure, excitement, empathy andsorrow. Both language content and voice intonation were considered. Inter-raterreliability in coding utterances in this category was 88.2% .The coding of children 's affective reactions has as follows:- Language play. This category includes all spontaneous utterances where children wereplaying with language, repeating funny words or engaging in rhyming play. Inter-raterreliability in coding utterances in this category was 97.3%.- Dramatization. This category refers to children's spontaneous re-enactment of scenesor events. Inter-rater reliability in coding utterances in this category was 100%.- Personal Engagement: This category covers children 's personal comments orparalinguistic cues that occurred as a spontaneous reaction to the text or the picturesand demonstrated personal interest, pleasure, excitement, empathy and sorrow. Wetook voice intonation and the content of the utterance into consideration in order tojudge if a particular comment demonstrated emotional engagement. Inter-raterreliability in coding utterances in this category was 88.6%.Examples ofthecoding of teachers' and children's affect can be found in Table and in

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF BOOKS 411

    Data analyses. The data were eoded as sequenees of events in order to analyze themoment by moment stream of aetivity during elassroom book reading. Sequential analysisallows us to examine how the use of partieular strategies on the teaeher's part (intonation,dramatization, personal involvement eomments) during the reading and diseussion of a bookinvoke par t ieu lar reaet ions f rom the eh i ldren (dramat izat ion , language p lay , personalengagement eomments) and viee versa. For the statistieal analysis, we have used the z seore,as a standardized me asure of the extent to whieh a partieular transitional probability deviatesfrom its expeeted va lue for that subjeet (Bake man & G ottma n, 1986, p. 150). If greater than1.96 then the transitional probabilities are oeeurring at a greater than ehanee level, p

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    412 E. MO SCHO VAK l, S. MEA DOW S, & A. PELLEGRINI

    Children s affective reactions during classroom book readingTable 2 reports young children's affective reactions across the four books. As expected,children's affective display of dramatization, language play and personal engagement is muchhigher in the two fiction books compared to the information ones. Following the sameprocedure as above, we examined if significant differences exist in young children's affectiveengagement among the four books (Fire:M=5.1, SD=3.1;Life: M=6.l, SD=4.6;W itch:M=n.3, SD=\O.\; Wolf M=25.2, 5D=13.2). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed asignificant text condition on children's affect: F(3,57)=30.11,/7CDT P I - C LTPI-CPEC D - T ICD-TDCD-TPICL-TIC L - T DCL-TPIC P E - T ICPE-TDC P E - T P I

    It3151011112100001807

    FIREz

    5.101.670.918.18-O.lt2.042.272.698.121.36-0.12-0.38-0.47-0.112.692.64-0.424.19

    n12220030012000200130

    LIFEz

    3.663.717.34-0.05-0.105.82-0.20-0.375.08-0.26-0.05-0.204.10-0.09-0.353.39-0.494.51

    WITCHn41173525505943630346438

    z0.935.5310.979.213.421.722.49-1.3411.300.935.323.260.33-0.510.995.051.055.79

    WOLFn2162101401525151052286248111022252

    z1.3010.656.4513.252.640.32-1.570.0824.791.570.510.941.310.072.906.61-0.3310.28

    OVERALLn2976201461734761882711122981516926108

    z4.9917.4715.5923.857.033.26.91.1729.584.424.313.184.372.314.0711.731.4214.58

    Note, T I : T eache r in tona t ion , T D; T eache r d rama t iza t ion , T PI : T eache r pe rs ona l invo lvement , CD: Ch i ld ren ' sdramatization, CL: Children's language play, CPE: Children's personal engagement. E.g. , TI-CD: Teachers 'intonation being followed by children's dramatization.

    In order to find out whether teachers' affective presentation of stories was mainly

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF BOOKS 413

    eases of teaehers' utteranees preeeding ehildren's utteranees with affeet and 405 eases ofehildren's affeet preeeding teaehers' affeet. Both z seores were signifieant. However the seorefor teaeh ers ' affeet (given ) ehild ren 's affeet (target) was signifieantly high er (z= 36.53) thanehildren's affeet (given) teaehers' affeet (target) (z= 19.96),t (19)=-8.40,/7

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    414 E. MOSCHOVAKl, S. MEADOWS,&A. PELLEGRINI

    teachers, according to book genre and the content of the text. No differences were foundbetween the narrative and expository text of the two information books. Thus, teachers'affective presentation and children's affective reactions are not always dependent on textgenre. The use of more children's books with various text features and illustrations cansubstantiate this point further.

    The next objective was to explore how teachers' use of affective strategies promptsyoung children's affective reactions and how that varies across the four books. The moststriking finding in all four books was the bi-directional relationship between teachers'demonstration of personal involvement and young children's displays of their personalengagement. Teachers' personal stance is transmitted to children who also seem to share thefeelings and attitudes of the teacher. On the other hand, the more children demonstrate theirpleasure, excitement, interest, empathy and sorrow through their comments and paralinguisticcues, it is more likely that teachers will react in a similar manner, sharing children's feelings.An example of such an interaction follows:

    T He blew it up with dynamite (Sad voice).C But why don't they go to their mother? (With empathy).T But their mother told them that they should built a house by themselves. Look, fire

    children Dynamite is a very bad thing. He destroyed this house as well.C They must be dead now (Sad voice).T They are desperate. (Sad voice).The particular outcome is consistent with theories of emotional contagion which

    postulate that people tend to catch others' emotions and that affective states are transmitted(Hatfield et al., 1994).

    In addition, teachers' voice reenactment of the text is usually followed by children'simitations of such reenactments. This relationship was found separately in both fiction booksand in "Life under Earth". However, the highest proportion was found in "The three littlewolves" with a proportion twice as much as in "Winnie the witch". The fact that the particulartext had a lot of dialogues encouraged many teachers to adopt a more dramatic style ofpresentation by reenacting the dialogues using different voices. In addition, the author hadincorporated in the text reenactment of scenes, such as the blowing of the house and thesmelling of the house made of flowers. Thus, teachers had only to follow the text to engage insuch reenactments. Some teachers explicitly asked children to imitate them; in other groupschildren took the initiative to imitate teachers' behavior. It is interesting though, that thetransitional probability of children's dramatization followed by teachers' dramatizationreached a significant level only in "Winnie the witch". It seems that teachers' reenactment isfollowed by children's reenactment, rather than the other way around.

    Furthermore, teachers' intonation was followed by children's language play in "Lifeunder Earth" and in both fiction books while teachers' dramatization followed by children'slanguage play appeared only in the two fiction books. The highest proportion of children'slanguage play took place in "The three little wolves". The author uses a lot of rhymes,repeated throughout the text and has given funny names to the heroes of the stories (e.g., thepig is called Rouni Rouni, the kangaroo Zip Zip Zorro, the rhino Popo Libopo, the flamingoFingo Mingo). As the teacher followed the text, the children's pleasure became evident. Theytuned to the text and started chiming, they laughed or made comments which showed theirdelight. This outcome substantiates Chukovsky's (1971) observations of children's pleasurewhen engaging in rhyming games. Conversely, the transitional probability of children'slanguage play followed by teacher intonation reached the significant level only in "Life underEarth". No significant relationship was found for children's language play followed byteachers' reenactment of dialogues in all four books. Thus, we can not suggest that children'slanguage play during the reading of text has an impact on teachers' choice of text presentation.

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF BOOKS 415

    interaetive style thus, in most eases, book illustrations invoked sueh reaetions. In fietionbooks, however, the majority of teaehers adopted a performanee oriented style during whiehehildren did not have aeeess to the book illustrations so that the eontent of the text and itspresentation style had a greater impaet. It is interesting to note that "Winnie the witeh", a bookwith no dialogues or rhyming, had the highest proportion of sueh sequenees. Children 'sreaetions eonsisted mainly of laughter or spontaneous eomments that demonstrated theirpleasure at the misfortunes of the witeh. Yet, not only the eontent of the text, but also itspresentation in a lively tone of voiee, paraphrasing parts of the text (e.g., adding dialogues,emphatie partieles ete.) made the text more appealing. For example the original text has asfollows: "When Wilbur sat on the earpet with his eyes open, Winnie eould see him. But whenWilbur elosed his eyes and went to sleep, Winnie eouldn't see him at all. So she tripped overhim" (Paul & Thomas, 1990, pp. 9-10). Teaeher 13 paraphrased it and presented it slightlydifferently.T (reads) When Wilbur sat on the earpet with his eyes open, W innie eould see himbeeause his green eyes were shining. But when Wilbur went to sleep on the earpet,Winnie eouldn't see him on the blaek earpet sinee he was blaek.C Not againT What did she do? She fell on him, she didn't see him and tripped over him. The Witeh

    fell down and the eat was in pain w ith the witeh over him. (Prolongs the ending)Cs She fell down (laughin g).Notably, ehildren's personal engagement was followed by teaehers' intonation in all fourbooks. Sueh a eausal relationship suggests that ehildren's spontaneous reaetions are morelikely to eneourage teaehers to present the text in a more lively way through the use of voieeintonation and paraphrasing.In the two in fo rmat ion books , t eaeher s ' i n tona t ion was fo l lowed by eh i ld ren ' s

    dramatization. These were rare eases and usually teaehers eneouraged ehildren to reenaetseenes. A eausal relationship also appeared between ehildren's dramatization and teaehers'intonation in "Life under earth" where ehildren reenaeted the shooting of the hunters duringthe reading ofthe text.Finally, teaehers ' dramatization was followed by ehildren 's personal engagement, arelationship that reaehed a signifieant level only in the two information books. It refers tospontaneous reaetions (laughter) to teaehers' voiee reenaetments. No relationship was foundfor ehildren's personal engagement being followed by teaehers' dramatization.In summary, the present outeomes elueidate how teaehers beeome mediators between theimplied reader and the audienee. Teaehers' affeetive presentation was eausally related toyoung ehild ren 's affeetive reaetion s. Sueh a relat ions hip, also funetions in the oppo site

    direetion sinee ehildren's demonstration of their affeetive engagement eneourages teaehers'affeetive representation of texts. In partieular, a strong bi-direetional relationship emergedbetween teaehers ' personal involvement and young ehildren 's personal engagement. Thiseausal relationship does not seem to be dependent on book and text genre. A strong bi-direetional relationship was also found between teaehers' intonation and ehildren's personalengagement. Apart from the illustrations, narrative texts (story form) are more likely to invokesueh reaetions, therefore the eontent of the text has a greater impaet. On the other hand,ehildren 's spontaneous reaetions of pleasure, exeitement, sorrow ete. reinforee teaeh ers' livelypresentat ion of the tex t . A b i -d i reet ional re lat ionship also appeared betwee n teae hers 'dramatization and ehildren's dramatization. The eontent ofthe text plays a signifieant role inthe extent of sueh reenaetments. Finally, text features sueh as rhyming, are mainly responsiblefor ehildren's language play.The outeomes of the study illustrate how intersubjeetivity is aehieved during group bookreading. Teaehers' strategies of intonation and dramatization bring the text to life, making it

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    416 E. MOSCHOVAKl, S. MEADOW S, A. PELLEGRINI

    read. Most importantly when teachers explicitly express their emotions of pleasure, sadness,interest , chi ldren imitate them and end up sharing their feel ings. Such a process assistschildren to experience the book reading session as a pleasurable activity, motivating them toimmerse themselves in i t . Thus, teachers ' affect ive strategies are important for both textcomprehension and children's affective engagement. On the other hand, children's affectivereact ions also influence teachers ' affect ive presentat ion of the text thus, both parts areconstantly adapting to one another.

    This study has certain limitations. The coding of affect for all participants was mainlybased on their verbal behavior. Although fieldnotes were kept during data collection, thesewere not made in a systematic way so as to have an accurate picture of their nonverbalbehavior. Additionally, a significant amount of data related to children's affective reactions isbeing missed, such as their facial expressions and body language during the reading of thestory. Future research can use video recording in order to have an accurate and systematicrecording of non verbal behavior and incorporate it to the coding system of affect.Furtherm ore, since we were looking at group interaction, the measure of childre n's affectdid not take into consideration individual differences in their affective reactions. Becauseyoung children have not yet developed regulatory strategies of their emotional state, it isdifficult for them to resist the affective atmosphere the teacher transmits. Our experience byobserving the group interaction is that excitement, empathy and laughter are contagious andall children react more or less in a similar manner. Nevertheless, fiiture research should focuson individual children either by using video recording or by systematic observation of theirbehavior for a more detailed description of their affective engagement.

    mplications for future research and practiceThe results of this study can be usefiil to practitioners. Teachers need to becom e aw are ofthe use of various affective strategies as a mean of attracting children's interest and promptingtheir emotional reactions, especially for those children who lack book reading experiences athome. In particular, emotional comments of personal interest, pleasure, excitement, empathyand sorrow are effectively transmitted to children who react accordingly. This might prove aparticularly effective strategy for children who find it difficult to concentrate during the booksession.The outcomes of this study have also implications for future research. To date, researchon reading aloud has focused on the quality of discussion and n eglected text presentation. Ourresults provide evidence that teachers' affective presentation of the text prompts children'saf fect ive react ions and vice versa . Therefore i t i s most l ikely that chi ldren are moreconcent ra ted and more act ively engaged dur ing the discuss ion. Future research shouldexamine the impact of teachers ' a f fect ive presenta t ion of books on chi ldren 's a t tent ivebehavior, their spontaneous participation and their ability to retell a story.Additionally, research should investigate how variation in the affective presentation of agiven book influences young children's affective reactions. Such an analysis will clarify theextent to which the text or teachers' use of affective strategies, are responsible for children'saffective engagement. Moreover, the use of other children's books can elucidate further theimpact of various text features and the effect of illustrations on teachers' affective presentationand children's affective reactions.In light of the present findings, research on the short and long term effects of bookreading styles on young children's developmental outcomes should also be reconsidered. Inparticular, the performance oriented style where affect seems to be accentuated benefits thedevelopm ent of language and print skills (Dickinson Smith, 1994; Reese Co x, 1999).Given the fact that such skills are essential for children's reading development, it is important

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTA TION OF BOOK S 417

    found a signifieant eorrelation between teaehers' and ehildren's use of affeetive words andehildren's development of print skills. Given the positive effeets ofthe dialogie style of storyreading on ehildren's language and literaey development of very young ehildren (Lonigan &Whitehurst, 1998; Whitehurst et al., 1994a,b, 1988), it is possible that the affeetive dimensionof the performanee style eneourages ineidental learning and suits better the needs of the olderehildren. I t is therefore imperative for future researeh to examine how young ehildren 'saffeetive engagement influenees their eognit ive engagement within the eontext of bookreading as well as any long term effeets on their reading development.

    ppendixExamples of the eoding systemTEACH ER 1, Book: The three little wolves79 T: "Please, rhino, they said, as soon as he applied the brakes, will you give us some of your barbed wire, a few iron

    bars and armor plates, and some heavy metal padlocks?" (Teacher reads, intonation)80 "Su re", said the rhinoceros whose name was Popo Libopo. (Teacher reads, intonation)81 C (laughing): Popo Libopo (Child, Language play)82 T: And he gave them everything and armor plates and barbed wire and iron bars, and padlocks and an iron door of a

    safe. (Teacher reads, 0)83 So the little wolves were very busy working and built themselves a house of steel, with curtains from w ire and a door

    of safe. (Teacher reads, 0).84 "That is really safe and secu re " they said as soon as they fmished. (Teacher reads, intonation)85 "God save Popo Libo po " (Teacher reads, intonation)86 Cs (laughing) Popo Libopo. (Child, language play)87 T: The other day, while they were skipping in the garden, what do they see (questioning)? (Tea cher reads, intonation)88 C: The pig. (Child, 0).89 T: Rouni Rouni the sneaky bad pig [In Greek it rhymes.] (Teacher reads, intonation)90 Cs: Rouni Rouni the sneaky bad pig (Child, language play)91 T: Immediately, they ran inside their house of steel and locked the door. (Teacher reads, 0)TEACH ER 12: Book: 'Life under Earth .108 T: After a lot of digging the house was ready. (Teache r reads, 0)109 C: The whole house. (Child, 0)200 T (Shows illustration): They started digging from here and made this enormous (prolongs) tunnel and here is the house.

    (Teacher, intonation)201 C: How big it is (With amazem ent) (Child, personal engagement)

    eferencesBakeman, R., & Gottman, J.M. (1986). Observing interaction: An introduction to sequential analysis. Cambridge, New

    York: Cambridge U niversity Press.Bakeman, R., & Quera, V. (1995). Analyzing interaction: S equential ana lysis with SDIS and GSEQ . Cambridge, New

    York: Cambridge University Press.Beals, D.E., DeTetnple, J.M., & Dickinson, D.K. (1994). Talking and listening that support early literacy development

    of children from low-income families. In D.K. Dickinson (Ed.), Bridges to literacy (pp. 19-40). Cambridge MA,Oxford U K: Blaekwell.

    Bruner, J. (1985). Vygotsky: A historical and conceptual perspective. In J.V. Wertsch (Ed.), Culture, communicationand cognition (pp. 21-34). Catnbridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Bugental, D.B., Lin, E.K., & Susskind, J.E. (1995). Influences of affect on cognitive processes of different ages: Whythe change? In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Social development (pp. 159-184). 15th Review of Person ality and SocialPsychology. London: Sage.

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    418 E. MO SCHO VAK l, S. ME ADO WS, & A. PELLEGRINI

    Chafe, W.L. (1982). Integration and involvement in speaking, writing and oral literature. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Spokenand written language: Exploring orality and literacy. Advan ces in Discourse Pract ices (vol . 9 , pp. 35-53).Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

    Chukovsky, K. (1971).Erom two to five, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.Cochran-Smith, M. (1984).The making of a reader, Norwood, NJ: AblexDickinson, D.K., & Smith, M.W. (1994). Long-term effects of pre-school teachers ' book readings on low-income

    children's vocabulary and story comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 29, 104-122.Egan, K. (1988).Primary understanding. Education in early childhood. New York: Routledge.Goodsitt , J . , Raitan, J .G., & Perlmutter, M. (1988). Interaction between mothers and preschool children when reading a

    novel and familiar book. International Journal of Behavioral D evelopment, II, 489-505 .Hatfield, E. , Cacioppo, J .T. , & R apson, R.L. (1994). Emotional contagion. Cambridge: Cambridge Llniversity Press.Klinnert, M.D., Campos, J .J . , Sorce, J .F. , Emde, R.N., & Svejda, M. (1983). Emotions as behavior regulators: Social

    referencing in infancy. In R. Plutchink & H . Kellerman (Eds.),Emotion: Theory, research and experience, Vol, 2,Emotions in early development (pp. 57-86). New Y ork: Academic Press.

    Lonigan, C.J. , & Whitehurst, G.J. (1998). Relative efficacy of parent and teacher involvement in a shared-readingintervention for preschool children from low-income backgrounds. Early Childhood Research Q uarterly, 13, 263-290.

    Mason, J .M., Peterman, C.L. , & Kerr, B.M. (1989). Reading to kindergarten children. In D.S. Strickland & L. MorrowMandel (Eds . ) , Emerging literacy: Young children learn to read and write (pp . 52-62). New ark, Delaware:Intemational Reading Association.

    Paul, K., & Thom as, V. (1990). H/jayiooa Flcda^a) [Winnie the witch].Adrjva: ^iapyapna,Pellegrini, A.D., Perlmutter, J .C. , Galda, L., & B rody, G.H. (1 990). Joint reading between black head start children and

    their mothers. Child Development, 61,443-453.

    Reese , E . , & Cox, A. (1999). Qual i ty of adul t book reading affec ts chi ldren 's emergent l i te racy. DevelopmentalPsychology, 35,20-28.Rius, M., & Parram on, J .M. (1992). Ta T OoepamoixEia: 0ajna[The four elements:Fire].ABrjva; KEdpos,Rius, M .,& Parramon, J . M. (1994).H^cu;; /caraj a^o T>;U Ft/ [Life under Earth], PSrfva: K(5pos. ogoff B. (1990).Apprenticeship in thinking. New York: Oxford University Press.Stem, D.N., Hofer, L., Hafl, W., & Dore, J. (1985). Affect attunement: The sharing of feeling states between mother and

    infant by means of inter-modal fluency. In T.M. Field & N.A. Fox (Eds.), Social perception in infants (pp. 249-268). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

    Sulzby, H., &Teale, W. (1987). Young children s storybook reading: Longitudinal study of parent-child interaction andchildren s independent functioning (Final report to the Spencer Foundation). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan(ERIC: ED 334 54 ) .

    Trivizas, E. . (1993). Ta rpia/umpaXvKaKia [The three little wo lves] .tsBr]va\ Mfvaiar.Watson, R. , & Shapiro, J . (1988). Discourse from home to school. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 37,

    395-409.Wells , G. (1975). Coding manual for the description of child speech in its conversational context. Unpublished

    manuscript. University of Bristol, Graduate School of E ducation.Whitehurst, G.J. , Arnold, D.S. , Epstein J .N., Angell, A.L. , Smith, M., & Fischel, J .E. (1994a). A picture book reading

    intervention in daycare and home for children from low-income families. Developmental Psychology, 30, 679-689.

    Whitehurst, G.J. , Epstein, J .N., Angell, A.C, Payne, A.C., Crone, D.A., & Fischel, J .E. (1994b). Outcomes of anemergent literacy intervention in Head Start.Journal o f Educational Psychology, 86,542-555.

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    AFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF BOOKS 419

    Cette etude examine comment I'emploi de strategies affectives(intonation, dramatisation, commentaired engagementpersonnel)parlesenseignants,pendantla lectureetdiscussiondes livres, influencelesreactions affective des enfants(dramatisation, engagementpersonnel,jeulinguistique). Vingt enseignants des ecoles maternellesont luquatrelivres -deux livre de litterature et deux livre instructifs (textenarratif/d'exposition).Nous avonstrouve desdifferences considerable entre leslivres delitterature et les livres instructifs ainsi qu entre les deux livres delitterature, mainpas entre le textenarratif etceluid'exposition. On atrouveune forterelation bidirectionnelle entre la presentation affectivedeshistoirespar lesenseignantset lesreactions affectives des enfants.Enparticulier,lecommentairepersonnel desenseignants a incite lesenfants aux reactionsd'engagementpersonnel; lareconstitutionpar lesenseignants a etesuiviepar I imitation de cettereconstitutionpar lesenfants; I intonationemployee par les enseignants a provoque descomm entaires d engagement personnel par les enfants. Par contre,I emploi designaux paralinguistiques et descommentaires personnelspar les enfants a ren force I'emploi d'intonation et des commentairespersonnelsparles enseignants.Finalement, lestraitsd utexte commelarimeontetesuivi par lejeulinguistique desenfants.

    Key words;Affeetive presentation. Book reading. Early literaey, Presehool edueation.

    Received: March 2005Revision received: May 2006

    Eleni Moschovaki. School Adviser, Ministry of Education, Ritsou 9 Atsiki, 82100 Chios, Greece.E-mail: gkem(gotenet.grCurrent theme of research:Book reading and early literacy in preschool settings.

    Most relevant publications in the field of Psycholog y of Education:Moschovaki, E. (2001) . Young children ' s language par t icipation dur ing the presentat ion of ch ildren ' s books in

    kindergarten schools. In P. Papoulia-Tzelepi (Ed.), The emergence of literacy (pp. 297-325). Athens: Kastaniotis.(In Greek).

    Moschovaki, E. (2003). Teachers' affective presentation of children's books and its impact on young children's attentivebehavior. In A. Pappas, A. Tsiplitaris, B. Petroulakis, S. Nikodim os, K. Haris, N.D . Zoukis (Eds.) , GreekPedagogic and Educational Research (vol. B, pp. 834-847). Athens: Atrapos. (In Greek).

    Mos chovak i, E. , Mea dows S. (2004) . A shor t term longitudinal s tudy of classroom book reading in Greekkindergartens schools.L -Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 4, 5 -168.

    Moschovaki, E., Meadows S. (2005). Young children's spontaneous participation during classroom book reading:D i f f e r e n c e s a c c o r d i n g t o v a r i o u s t y p e s o f b o o k s . Early Childhood Research Practice, 7 ( 1 ) :http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v7nl/moschovaki.html.

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    Sara Meadows Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8lJA, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected]; Web site: www.bris.ac.uk/Current theme of research:Adult-child interaction and psychological development.

    Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:Meadows, S. (1996). Parenting behaviour an d children s cognitive development. Hove: The Psychology Press.Meadows, S. (1998). Children learning to think: Learning from others? Vygotskian theory and educational psychology.

    Educational and Child Psychology 15(2),6-13.Meadows , S . (2006) . The child as thinker: The development and acquisition of cognition in childhood, L ondon :

    Routledge.Mea dow s, S. , Herrick, D., the ALS PAC Study Team (2007). Improvement in National Test Arithmetic scores at KS l;

    grade inflation or better achievement? British Educational Research Journal, in press.Mea dow s, S. , Herrick, D., Feiler, A. , the ALS PA C Study Team (2007). Improvement in National Test Reading scoresat KS 1; grade inflation or better achievement? British Educational Research Journal, January 2007.

    Anthony D Pellegrini Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Twin CitiesCampus, Mintieapolis, MN 55405, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] theme of research:Currently studying preschoolers ' social dominance and sex segregation.

    Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:Pellegrini, A.D. (2005). Recess: Its role in education and development, Mahwah, NJ: Eribaum.Pellegrini, A.D. (in press) Schools and models of development: Th e place of recess. In J . Meece J. Eccles (Eds.),

    Handbook of research on schools, schooling, and human development, Mahw ah, NJ: Eribaum.Pellegrini, A.D., Galda, L. (in press). Theory and evidence in the dramatic play and literacy connection: Roles of

    dramatic play in the comm unicative and visual arts . In J . Flood, S.B. Heath, D. Lapp (Eds.), A handbook ofliteracy education: Research on teaching the communicative and visual arts, 2nd Edition, New York: Macmillian.

    Pellegrini, A.D ., Gustafson, K. (2005). Boy s' and girls ' uses of objects for exploration, play, and tools in earlychildhood . In A.D. Pellegrini P.K. Smith (Eds.), The nature of play: Great apes and hum ans. New York :Guilford.

    Pellegrini, A.D., Blatchford, P. , Kato, K., Baines, E. (2004). A short-time longitudinal study of children 's playgroundgames in primary school: Implications for adjustment to school and social adjustment in the USA and the UK.Social Development, 13, 107-123.

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