different book genres except that if mothers asked more Specific Question in familiar
book session, it would reduce children’s reading interest. This finding is reasonable
because if children have been familiar to book context, it was supposed that dyads
need more conversational interchange not just the Ask-and Say with limited answers.
In another word, the result represented that it is essential for Taiwanese mothers to be
more sensitive to child’s response and need when interacting with children in different
activities. Above findings implied again that child’s reading motivation was
influenced mainly by maternal parenting, especially the Parent-Centered behavior,
not by the literacy behaviors or print-materials.
Some limitations of this study should be acknowledged. Firstly, shared reading
is a bi-directional interaction, thus child’s characteristics such as reading ability,
language ability, attention skills or temperament is likely a significant influence on
parents’ behavior during shared book reading (Evans, Moretti, Shaw, & Fox, 2003,
Pellegrini et al., 1985; Stoltz & Fischel, 2003). However, there is also good
evidence that some aspects of maternal discourse style are relatively independent of
the child's contributions (Reese & Cox, 1999). Further research may need to find
how the extended role that child’s characteristics played. Secondly, only
mother-child interactions were involved in preset study, just as most other studies
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examining parent-child interactions of book sharing (Bus et al., 1997). Researcher
argued that fathers’ educational level and income were uniquely associated with child
literacy development, and consistently predicted the quality of mother-child
engagement (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004). Meanwhile, the study was conducted in
a small town that located in East-Northern Taiwan, where the concept of shared book
reading was still not so as familiar as in Western Taiwan, and” reading” per sec might
be corresponded to formal learning to many parents. Thus further research should
include father-child dyads and dyads from different background and areas in order to
determine whether our findings are robust. Besides, dyads were observed in an
artificial environment, whereas we did not know how representative of typical home
reading the parent-child interactions were in this study. The least limitation was
occurred from the study design. The two raters coded maternal behaviors (predictors)
and the children’s engagement (outcome variable) as well, the data might have been
biased since the raters might be influenced by mothers responses when rating
children’s engagement.
Despite these limitations, the findings of present study have important
methodological implications for research on shared reading, and practical implications
for shared-reading intervention programs. In terms of methods, observational
techniques to assess mothers' behaviors and child’s engagement during joint reading
75
interaction are related rare in light of the expense and time associated with such
procedures. Nonetheless, directed observation may offer a different perception from
those obtained when parents are asked to report on their behaviors and child’s reading
interest. Self-report methodologies might contribute to respondent bias and answers
that are rooted in social desirability. Observational measures may overcome some of
these limitations by providing more objective insight into semi-naturalistic behaviors
that represent everyday parental behaviors, and also the child’s engagement in joint
reading interaction.
In term of implications for practice, the present study provides some suggestions
to who are working on the promotion of shared reading activities. Firstly, it is the
quality of parenting playing an important role in cultivating Chinese children’s
reading interest and engagement, rather than the styles of maternal reading practices.
Secondly, when giving anticipatory guidance about shared reading to mothers, it
might need to keep in mind that mothers with different educational level and different
child gender might need individual guidance. To mothers in the bracket of high
educational level, parental control and frequently asking open-ended questions might
increase children’s engagement in joint reading interaction, but more elaboration and
frequently asking questions relating to content of book might make children pay less
attention on joint reading activities. To mothers with lower bracket of educational
76
level, frequently asking open-ended questions also would decrease their children’s
engagement in joint reading, but asking questions relating to the content of book
might get reverse result. In the meantime, mothers might be informed that girls
usually show higher reading interest than boys thus mothers need to be more patient
to sons.
In sum, consistent with the suggestion from researchers--Learning should best
occur when children are interested and engaged (Arnold & Doctoroff, 2003;
Sonnenschein & Munsterman, 2002), results from the preset study reveal that
children would show more interest in books and exhibiting greater focused attention,
enthusiasm, and positive mood during the storybook reading interaction when their
parents are more warm and responsive, less discipline, directive and intrusive. Most
all, this study suggests that it is important to support parent-child joint book reading
programs, nevertheless, when educators or pediatricians encourage Taiwanese parents
to read aloud to their children, there is particular noteworthiness to understand how
that advice is carried out by different parents; otherwise the behaviors of parents
might contribute negatively to the attitude of beginning readers.
77
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Chang, & Liu: 張鑑如、劉惠美 (2011)。親子共讀研究文獻回顧與展望。「教育心
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Aram, D. (2008). Parent-child interaction and early literacy development. Early