Read-Aloud Sessions in Preschool - Language Development Work and Cultural Participation

At Linköping University, an ongoing research project is focusing on Read-aloud in Preschool Language Development and Cultural Participation. The project is led by Associate Professor Maria Simonsson (LiU), Professor Niklas Pramling (University of Gothenburg), and Lecturer /Docent Martina Norling (Örebro University). Linköping University is the principal research institution, and the project, funded by the Swedish Research Council, runs from 2023 to 2026.

Children’s reading is a key societal issue, and preschool constitutes one of the most important reading-promoting environments during childhood through its practices of read-aloud and book use. The project aims to explore how read-aloud activities in preschool are carried out and how they create opportunities for children to become participants in significant communicative and cultural practices and knowledge domains (language, storytelling, subject matter, and value communities). The project seeks to understand how practices and concepts related to shared reading are articulated in preschool staff conversations and how read-aloud is enacted in everyday preschool life.

Key research questions include:

What strategies do preschool teachers employ when organizing read-aloud activities?

What linguistic interaction patterns are established by preschool teachers and children during read-aloud, and how do children participate in these patterns, potentially altering their modes of participation?

What does participation in shared reading mean for children? Which communicative resources do children draw upon to create meaning during shared reading?

How do preschool teachers reason about the role of shared reading, including how they view it in relation to their teaching mandate?

The researchers will observe and document how everyday shared reading is designed and implemented, and for one month, they will follow children’s participation in these activities within preschool groups. To analyze these communicative interactions, the researchers will make video recordings. In connection with this, focus group interviews will also be conducted with preschool staff. The video material is necessary to enable retrospective understanding of what is said and who says and does what. Recordings will be securely stored, and only a closed research group will view/listen to them. The project will not evaluate individual children or preschools. The focus of the study is on shared reading and communicative practices in preschool. Research data will be managed in accordance with Linköping University’s data management plan.

The project is led by Associate Professor Maria Simonsson, Linköping University.