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Teacher dialogue style and children’s story comprehension

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Abstract

The three components of the dialogue style are: a) a great number of questions asked by the teacher during the storytelling; b) three exclusive types of questions asked; and c) a variety of questions. The present study is intended to analyse the relationships between these components and children’s story comprehension. The subjects were 48 children, aged 4;4 to 6;2, randomly divided into four groups of 12 children each: the number, exclusive types, and variety groups, and a control group (the reading group). Twenty-four teachers were also divided randomly into four groups of six teachers each, and assigned to the four children’s groups. Each teacher told the story to two children at a time; the children were chosen and paired randomly. Each child, singly, retold the story and then answered a questionaire on the structure of the story. The responses of each child were compared with the story text and considered correct if approriate to the contents of the story. The mean percentages of correct responses in the three experimental groups were higher than those of the control group. This difference is significant in the free retelling situation.

Résumé

Le but de cette étude est d’analyser les relations entre la compréhension d’un récit par des enfants et trois composantes du fonctionnement dialogique de l’enseignant (nombre, type et variété des questions posées). 48 enfants ayant de 4 ans 4 mois à 6 ans 2 mois ont été répartis de façon aléatoire en quatre groupes de 12 enfants chacun: trois groupes expérimentaux et un groupe contrôle. Les groupes expérimentaux différaient de façon systématique sur les trois paramètres cidessus relatifs au questionnement. 24 enseigmants ont été affectés de façon aléatoire au quatre groupes d’enfants (6 enseignantes par groupe), chaque enseignant racontant l’histoire à deux enfants à la fois choisis au hasard. Chaque enfant devait ensuite redire l’histoire et répondre à un questionnaire sur la structure du récit. Les performances et réponses des enfants ont été évalués par comparaison au texte source de l’histoire. Les résultats mettent en évidence l’existence de différences significatives entre les groupes expérimentaux et le groupe contrôle.

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Albanese, O., Antoniotti, C. Teacher dialogue style and children’s story comprehension. Eur J Psychol Educ 12, 249–259 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172874

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172874

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