Determinants of emergent reading
Date
1993-05
Authors
Contributor
Advisor
Department
Instructor
Depositor
Speaker
Researcher
Consultant
Interviewer
Narrator
Transcriber
Annotator
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Volume
Number/Issue
Starting Page
Ending Page
Alternative Title
Abstract
This study attempted to find effective home and school predictors of the emergent reading ability in kindergartners in Bangkok, Thailand. Emergent reading ability in this research consisted of four components--environmental print awareness, the awareness of print conventions, the awareness of print functions, and reading attempts. Three groups of home and school variables--parents' reading to children, parents' speech, and the schools' teaching of reading and writing--were examined. Ninety-two children attending level two of five private kindergartens, as well as their parents, were participants in this research. Participants' reading attempts were assessed by using a favorite storybook. The other three components were evaluated by direct observation of the children and by questioning the parents and teachers of these children. Parents of the participants were asked whether they read to their children and how they read. Their answers were recorded and transcribed so that the clarity of parents' speech, the similarity between parents' speech and textual language, and the complexity of the speech could be assessed. The schools' teaching of reading and writing was reported by teachers. The items of these four components of emergent reading ability were factor analyzed and this resulted in two factors, emergent reading skills and knowledge of print. Using multiple regression, good predictors of emergent reading skills were: schools' cumulative instruction in reading words, parents' speech complexity (number of coordinations per T-unit), frequency of parents' explanation while reading to their children, and writing assignment frequency. The latter had negative regression coefficient. These predictors explained 27.5% of the variance of emergent reading skills. Good predictors of the knowledge of print were frequency of parents' reading to their children and reading assignment frequency. These predictors accounted for 21% of the variance in the criterion. These results suggested that effective instruction, either formally or informally, before first grade fosters emergent reading ability of young children. Moreover, the factors which have been confirmed to be useful in enhancing children's literacy in western countries are also revealed to be important fer children in an Asian Country •
Description
Keywords
Citation
Extent
Format
Geographic Location
Time Period
Related To
Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Educational Psychology; no. 2853
Related To (URI)
Table of Contents
Rights
All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
Rights Holder
Local Contexts
Collections
Email libraryada-l@lists.hawaii.edu if you need this content in ADA-compliant format.