Talking about reading

Talking about reading as you read to people is a good way of exposing them to some basic concepts of what print is and how it works. Reading without talking about the process is not enough to develop their awareness of what reading is. Studies have shown that the talk surrounding the event is important (Morrow, O'Connor, and Smith 1990).

There are two kinds of talk associated with reading to nonreaders or beginning readers:

• Explaining the reading process
• Talking about what you are reading

Here is a prerequisite for talking about reading:

• You need to discover or develop words in the language to talk about concepts such as

  • a book
  • a letter, and
  • a sentence.

• Talk about what you are doing as you read.

  Example:

  “This is the top of the page. We start reading here. Then we read in this direction.”

• Talk about what you are reading.

  Examples:

  Ask questions and talk about the pictures and story. Have the listener retell the story. Ask about personal situations similar to an event in the story.

• Exposing people to reading and writing
• Creating a print-rich environment
• Using lap reading
• What are concepts and conventions of print?

• Morrow, O'Connor and Smith 1990

• Task module: Talking about reading
• In task module: Modeling reading and writing
• In task module: Exposing people to reading and writing, by Delle P. Matthews, Anne Klaassens (contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Ken Boothe (contributor), and Trudy K. Stewart (general editor)
• In task module: Preparing for a literacy program
• In modular book: Prepare for a literacy program, by Stephen L. Walter, Mary Morgan, and Leah B. Walter
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 8 December 1998

© 1999 SIL International