Bilinguals Contingently Respond to Teacher Inferential Questions during Shared Reading in Preschool

Abstract

Research Findings: This study used sequential analysis to investigate teachers’ use of literal and inferential questions and their relation to children’s responses during small-group shared reading in preschool. Participants were 202 dual-language learners (age 3–5 years) and 53 preschool teachers in multiethnic preschool classrooms in Norway. Teacher questions and child responses were coded for their inferential level, ranging from lower-order literal to higher-order inferential levels. Sequential analysis was employed to examine in which ways dual-language learners aligned their responses with the level of the preschool teachers’ questions. We found that teacher questions were highly likely to elicit child responses on the same level, with higher-order inferential questions consistently followed by higher-order inferential child responses. Practice or Policy: The results suggest that preschool teachers can use not only literal but also more challenging inferential questions with dual-language learners and in this way, actively engage them in complex inferential talk during shared reading.